STORY: Resurgence of shops, home-snacking, treating and plant-based NPD
Brits needing a sweet in-store bakery (ISB) hit have increasingly turned to the web in the last year and online ISB products have shown huge double digit growth accounting for 5.1% sweet ISB share, driven by older shoppers.
But with 58 million more visits to supermarkets in the last three months and hospitality opening up, leading manufacturer Rich Products expects sweet bakery sales to maintain momentum in the second half of the year.
Convenience remains a key bakery consideration for retailers and consumers. Rich’s is working with customers to develop its extensive ‘thaw & serve’ retail-ready cookies, muffins and buns, bringing high-quality ISB products to selling channels and shopping locations where previously, they would be unavailable.
Indulgence and home-snacking
The total bakery category has grown 6.3% in grocery retail in the last year. This reflects the trend for indulgent snacking, often at the premium end of the scale. Premium cookies sales have risen +20.8%, whilst the growth in indulgent ‘filled cookies’ have also played a positive role in the category by adding value and trading customers up. ISB Muffin sales also grew, up 8.6%, with growth coming from higher-end, twin packs.
Snacking at home rose 41% with more people eating together than ever before in 2020 and additional occasions throughout the day. This resulted in growing sales for ‘sharing buns’ for multiple snackers, which Rich’s predict will continue with increased group eating in the months ahead.
Plant-based bakery
Rich’s has identified a huge growth in flexitarian diets in recent years, with 86% of plant-based vegan meals in the UK in fact eaten by non-vegans, showcasing an openness from shoppers to flex their diets and add free-from products to their basket. Plant-based purchasing is driven by 18–45-year-olds, whilst those aged 18-24 are most likely to adopt the diet and are the heaviest users. With pre-family shoppers over indexing in plant based sweet ISB, plant based vegan consumers are looking for plant-based options without compromising on taste, texture and product visual. Rich’s has seen its Veganuary 2021 plant-based products relaunched to become available all year round to satisfy the high customer demand.
John Want, Sales, Marketing and R&D Director at Rich’s, says: “We’ve seen real resilience in the sweet bakery category, helped by over 9.9billion total annual snacking occasions, and there are plenty of reasons for a positive future.
“The last year has shown a rise in out of home deliveries, through apps such as Deliveroo, which tapped into the demand for sweet-bakery and hot drink pairings, delivered direct to your door. It’s great news that shoppers are returning to supermarkets and cafes. But there is still a huge opportunity to introduce ISBs to online shopping. This is achievable through our ‘thaw and serve’ ready to eat products and packaging format, especially as older customers have switched to shopping online, as they are a core demographic for sweet ISB sales.
“We’ve seen many retailers review their in-store operations recently, and there is still a place for traditional ISB, with over 82% of the population buying sweet ISB products from grocery retailers in the past year. This is why we continue to expand our ‘thaw & serve’ propositions to cater for the changing retail landscapes, providing an ISB solution to channels previously uncatered for, such as convenience and online.
“There is also a huge under representation of plant-based vegan instore sweet bakery products. Over the last two years British households have shown a genuine behaviour shift toward eating plant-based goods. We have launched successful plant-based ISB products over the past 12 months and have numerous exciting NPD concepts in the pipeline to meet the growing demand.”
For more information visit www.richs.com
