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WholesaleManager
HOME BAKING
HOME BAKING ON THE RISE
Comment From The Wholesale Manager
CHARLES SMITH
The Editor
At first glance home baking
might not seem a very sexy
market, but it has a lot going
for it in these tough times.
Taking out the effects of inflation
from rising commodity
prices, it’s still a pretty healthy
sector, with plenty of profit
opportunities for cash ‘n’ carries
and delivered wholesalers
serving neighbourhood stores.
As anyone who’s ever followed
a cake recipe will vouch,
there’s always an ingredient
you find you haven’t got in the
kitchen cupboard when you
need it: hence the distress
purchase aspect adds another
‘dosh dimension’ for local
stores, all year round.
Home baking comprises a
broad spread of products - at
one end are traditional ingredients
like culinary nuts, dried
fruit and cooking chocolate and
perennial products for home
baking fans such as cake decorations
and flavourings and at
the other, hyper-convenient
lines like baking mixes and
ready-made pastry.
Putting the consumers
under the microscope, ABC1s
and pre- and post-kids couples
are the biggest users of raw
baking ingredients while
baking mixes have a clear C2DE
profile, but the demographics
are shifting.
Back in the affluent 90’s
home baking was a neglected
sector that marketers reckoned
was of little interest to the
‘alpha consumers,’ young adults
with money to spend. Back
then, it had an ageing consumer
base and few brands were actually
putting money into it. Now
it’s a different picture entirely.
First, the healthy eating
trend has encouraged people to
think twice about cooking from
scratch and home baking.
Then, the growing army of
celebrity chefs and Delia
Smith’s How To Cheat At
Cooking have made it more
socially acceptable to use
ready-made ingredients in the
process. Most recently, in the
last couple of years, the recession
has made consumers of all
incomes take a whole new look
at their food and what they
spend on it, and if staying in
really is the new going out,
home baking is a big attraction.
In response, large and small
manufacturers alike have taken
the initiative to come up with
premium products that tick all
the boxes - convenient; additive-free;
products inspired by
the ‘treats to go’ found in coffee
shop culture; and crucially,
products that are ethically
sound with Fair Trade, organic
and other propositions.
This is a market where historically
above the line spend
and brand investment has been
quite limited. However, in the
short term, the existence of
new media and specialist TV
channels enables smart marketers
to reach the hardcore
consumers who are big home
bakers while keeping their
brands on a lean budget.
Looking ahead, compulsory
cooking lessons
for all 11-14’s
from 2011
should boost
the UK’s food
skills and start a
new generation
home baking en
masse.
AMKO FOODS
ACHIEVE EU APPROVAL
A new manufacturer
rivals Premier’s
Atora brand.
Bolton firm Amko Foods is producing Beef
and Vegetable suet for independent food manufacturers,
bakers and wholesalers for use in
dumplings and suet puddings.
Amko have become the 1st in the UK to achieve
EU Approval required to produce Beef Suet before
the industry giant Premier Foods.
“Comfort foods are still in demand “ said Peter
Martindale, “We have been producing dumpling mix
for a number of years now, so it was a natural progression
to produce our own suet sooner or later, to
be included in our own Amko Dumpling Mix”.
“Our newly launched retail pack of Beef Suet last year, has
been a great success, offering an alternative to the industry
giant Atora, at a competitive price.” said Mr Martindale.
New blends include a gluten free non hydrogenated
vegetable suet and a gluten free non
hydrogenated beef suet variety, already proving popular
with the food service sector.
Amko Foods
Tel : 01204 388801
BETTY CROCKER
BAKES UP BIG PLANS
General Mills UK has injected a
further boost into the already flourishing
home baking category by
unveiling a raft of activity for 2010
including NPD, marketing and promotional
activity for Betty Crocker,
the UK’s No 1 baking mixes brand.
2009 was a great year for Betty
Crocker, with the brand having grown
value sales by 46.1% y-o-y. The brand is
all set to make 2010 even better with the
roll out of some really exciting activity.
Andy Foweather, Sales Director,
General Mills UK: “We believe home
baking will continue to grow in 2010
with consumers treating more in the
home. This is very much reflected in
the positive sales growth of the baking
mixes category (+5%). As market
leader one of our objectives is to drive
category development - and we’ll do
that by adopting a fresh approach.”
CHOCOLATE FUDGE
CUPCAKES MIX
Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge
Cupcakes Mix includes all the elements
consumers need to make
delicious cupcakes: including cake
mix, icing, sprinkles and 10 cupcake
cases.
Ed Culf, Marketing Director at
General Mills UK, says: “Cupcakes
are currently very in vogue and, as a
product offering, last year experienced
exceptional growth of 47%.
There is a definite role in the category
for a quality product that is
appealing to adults and easy enough
to prepare that the whole family can
get involved.”
VERY LAZY EXPANDS
INTO POSH COOKING CONCENTRATES
English Provender Company,
manufacturers of premium
condiments, chutneys, dressings
and sauces, is taking its popular
BLUE DRAGON DRIVES ORIENTAL CATEGORY
Blue Dragon continues to drive the oriental
stir fry category with new glass jar offering
Pan Oriental food specialist
Blue Dragon is continuing to
drive the ambient Oriental
food market with the extension
of its market leading stir
fry portfolio.
Blue Dragon has taken its
best selling stir fry sachet
flavours - Black Bean, Sweet &
Sour, Hoi Sin & Garlic, Chow
Mein and Sweet Chilli & Garlic -
and created 200g glass jar versions.
With its 46% market
share and 13% year-on-year
growth rate, Blue Dragon is
currently driving the total stir
fry segment (worth £28m and
growing at a rate of 4% YOY),
and this new range is set to
uphold the brand’s strong category
positioning.
Tracy Hughes, Blue Dragon
Consumer and Trade
Marketing Controller, comments:
“At Blue Dragon we
pride ourselves on providing
UK consumers with products
that are in line with their
needs, while maintaining high
standards of quality and
authenticity. Following consumer
research we know
there’s a demand amongst
larger households for a stir fry
offering that provides up to 3-4
servings, but which still presents
a cost effective meal
solution. Research also suggests
that 63% of consumers
prefer their stir fry to be presented
in a recyclable glass
format.
“Our new 200g stir fry glass
jar portfolio meets these exact
criteria and we’re confident
this innovative launch will
drive penetration of stir fry
glass jars and really cater to a
clear gap in the market.”
With an RRP of £1.19, Blue
Dragon’s new stir fry glass jar
portfolio is the only range in
the market which is free from
artificial additives and preservatives,
and is in line with the
2012 FSA guidelines on salt.
“Very Lazy” branded product
range into new territory with
the launch of a range of high-end
concentrated cooking sauces.
The cooking concentrates,
packed in premium glass jars in a
cardboard sleeve and retailing at
around £1.69, aim to reduce the
skills, number of ingredients and
preparation time needed to make
nutritious, classic home cooked
meals.
Available in four flavours - Posh
Sausage Casserole, Beef
Bourguignon, Coq au Vin and
Creamy Chicken - the sauces have
been developed with the benefit of
consumer research and feedback.
Says Brand Manager Rachel
Chang: “The expansion of the Very
Lazy brand offer into these cooking
concentrates takes us into new and
exciting territory. We intend to
develop the Very Lazy brand as a
functional brand that clearly communicates
time and skills
solutions. This latest development
also takes the brand beyond the
categories where we currently
have a strong foothold into product
categories that are a firm part of
the weekly shopping basket.
“This also explains why we have
deliberately concentrated on developing
cooking sauces around
classic favourites, as these are
many of the dishes that people are
really cooking during busy weekdays,”
says Chang.
She adds: “Each sauce is recipe
specific and gives full cooking
instructions, while the packaging
directs consumers to our website
and more ideas for simple, alternative
dishes suited to family eating.
But the crucial thing is all the
sauces in the range offer the ability
to prepare a delicious home-cooked
family meal in the least possible
time and with least possible effort.”
English Provender’s groundbreaking
Very Lazy range of
ingredients and sauces, marketed
with the message of how they help
a home-made meal happen without
compromise on quality, have revolutionised
life in the kitchen for
busy consumers.
To give the products even
greater consumer recognition, this
year English Provender made Very
Lazy a stand-alone brand, committing
a record £500,000 spend on
conveying the new proposition to
its customers and consumers and
introducing bold new labeling. An
amusing and memorable creative
built around “the world’s fastest
human chopper, Lazlo Vaslavsky”
has brought Very Lazy to TV,
cinema screens and 48-sheet
posters and kick-started an ambitious
marketing support package
for the brand.
English Provender Company
www.englishprovender.com
www.WholesaleManager.co.uk Summer 2010