Time to reawaken the passion
IT’S time to make the nation fall in love with bread again according to Kingsmill brand owner Allied Bakeries, and transforming the bakery experience in store is a vital step towards achieving that goal.
Quoting Nielsen Scantrack research, it says bread accounts for 54% of the bakery category but sales have declined every year since 2012.
The figures show that other bakery goods have, in contrast, grown steadily over the same period.
Allied says the bread category can be reawakened by reminding consumers why they love bread and providing a great range of quality breads.
A spokesperson said: “Consumers feel increasingly positive about affordable treats.
“Bakery can deliver simple pleasures like a bacon sandwich, toast and hot crumpets.”
Consumers increasingly want to manage their families’ wellbeing through food choices, they have an appetite for new and different tastes, and that means the “better bread” category, where products offer health benefits, is becoming vital, the firm reckons.
But bread overall could be seen as a victim of its own success – so popular that it has become invisible in store, it says. And to combat that it suggests retailers should move from planning bread and bakery fixtures primarily by product function to merchandising by brand. That would, the company argues, give bread displays more impact and help retailers benefit from consumer brand loyalty.
Retailers could also encourage bread shoppers to trade up by increasing the space given to premium, seeded and healthy bread.
Allied says the current typical split on bread display shelves gives 30% to “better” bread and 70% to core bread lines but it would prefer retailers to split display space 50/50.
In displays of other bakery products it recommends giving 36% of space to modern sandwich alternatives such as bagels, wraps and thins, with 50% for baked snacks and 14% for rolls and meal accompaniments.
Allied has changed recipes for some of its Kingsmill products, repackaged the whole range and introduced a new product it says will help remind consumers how much they love toast.
Kingsmill Super Toasty has been developed specifically for toast using a special blend of flours.
Marketing director Janene Warsap said that the Kingsmill brand will see launches of reformulated products in January 2017.
