Premiumisation is driving bakery market growth, as demand for café-style experiences at home, speciality bakery items, and innovative products creates opportunities for wholesalers.
St Pierre is outperforming the market, its growth fuelled by increased distribution, marketing investment, and product innovation.
The brand is responding to consumer demand for premium, versatile, and globally inspired bakery products through innovations such as the Croissant Loaf and Chocolate & Hazelnut Filled Croissants.
Louise Reynard, Head of UK Sales at St Pierre Bakery, tells Wholesale Manager what sets the brand apart from others and how wholesalers can maximise category sales.
How much is the UK bread and baking market worth? Is the category in growth? What is driving the growth?
The UK bakery market remains one of the country’s largest grocery categories, growing more than 3 per cent year on year in value1, and with bread and morning goods continuing to play an important role in everyday shopping. While volume growth has been more challenging due to changing shopping habits and economic pressures, this value growth is being driven by premiumisation, as consumers seek higher-quality bakery experiences.
Industry data shows particularly strong growth with speciality bakery segments growing significantly faster than the total bread market.
Shoppers are increasingly looking for products that deliver café-style experiences at home, while continuing to prioritise taste, freshness and quality, even amid ongoing cost pressures – and this presents one of the biggest opportunities for trade up in both wholesale and retail sectors.
How is your brand performing?
St Pierre continues to outperform the wider bakery category, with more than one in five UK households now purchasing the brand and household penetration increasing year-on-year.
Growth is being driven across all key consumption occasions, with St Pierre growing faster than its respective sectors in breakfast, lunch, evening meal and continental occasions.
This broad-based performance reflects the brand’s ability to meet evolving consumer needs throughout the day, from premium breakfast and brunch occasions through to lunch, dinner and entertaining. Year to date, St Pierre is growing at more than six times the rate of the total bakery occasions sector, demonstrating the strength of both the brand and the premium bakery segment as a whole.2
Growth has been driven through increased distribution, continued marketing investment and innovation, helping to bring new shoppers into the brand and encouraging greater engagement with the premium bakery category.
What are your best-known products?
Our brioche range remains at the heart of the brand, led by Brioche Buns, Seeded Brioche Buns, Brioche Hot Dog Rolls and Sliced Brioche Loaf.
These products have helped establish St Pierre as one of the UK’s leading premium bakery brands, offering shoppers a simple way to elevate everyday meals.
Alongside our brioche range, our breakfast portfolio is becoming increasingly important, with croissants and croissant-based innovation helping us tap into growing demand for premium breakfast and brunch occasions.
What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?
Three key trends are shaping the bakery category.
Firstly, premiumisation continues to drive value growth, with consumers actively seeking higher-quality products that bring something special to everyday meals. Secondly, versatility is becoming increasingly important. Consumers are looking for products that work across multiple eating occasions and offer greater value from every purchase.
Thirdly, there is growing demand for new experiences, particularly through hybrid formats and internationally inspired products. Mintel research shows that 60% of UK bakery shoppers would like to see more global baked goods and pastries available.3
At St Pierre, we’re responding through innovation, category-first launches and a continued focus on premium French-inspired bakery products that help wholesalers and retailers drive category value.
What sets your brand apart from others?
St Pierre occupies a unique position within bakery, combining premium French-inspired credentials with products that are accessible, versatile and suitable for everyday use.
Our range allows shoppers to elevate ordinary eating occasions, whether that’s breakfast, lunch, dinner or entertaining at home.
We’re also committed to bringing genuine innovation to the category.
Rather than simply offering another version of an existing product, our focus is on creating products that generate excitement, attract new shoppers and deliver incremental value for our customers.
How does St Pierre cover a breadth of meal occasions?
Versatility is one of our biggest brand strengths. The St Pierre portfolio caters to every meal occasion, and with a variety of different formats – including individually-wrapped multipacks and sharing – the brand can be used across a breadth of everyday moments.
This broad appeal means wholesalers can stock products that work across multiple dayparts and consumption occasions, helping operators maximise sales opportunities from a single brand.
The portfolio also benefits from a generous shelf-life which is particularly relevant for wholesalers servicing retail customers who need to offer quality bakery products without compromising on availability and shelf-life.
Do you have any NPD coming up?
Innovation remains a key part of our growth strategy.
We’ve recently expanded our breakfast portfolio and continue to invest in category-first products that create excitement for shoppers and deliver incremental opportunities for our retail and wholesale partners.
Our innovation pipeline is focused on identifying unmet needs and premiumisation opportunities that help drive additional value into the bakery category. This year saw the launch of the hybrid ‘Croissant Loaf’ into the major multiples and we’ll be rolling that out to our wholesale customers in the coming months. The Croissant Loaf offers the indulgence of a croissant, with the convenience of a sliced loaf and has been performing incredibly well in the grocery sector since launch.
Another breakfast innovation we’ll be launching into the wholesale market is our six pack of Chocolate & Hazelnut Filled Croissants. Each croissant is individually-wrapped, great for snacking on-the-go, stocking up for snacking occasions or solving breakfast routines. The launch is another demonstration of the versatility in the St Pierre portfolio.
The continental breakfast sector continues to show strong growth, but St Pierre is outperforming the market, with recent launches helping to drive 18 per cent year-to-date growth within the subsector.4
What marketing support do you have for the brand?
We continue to invest heavily in building brand awareness and driving shopper demand.
Our support programme includes national advertising campaigns, PR, shopper marketing, social media, influencer partnerships, digital activity and in-store activation.
We also invest in merchandising solutions, point-of-sale materials and promotional activity designed to help customers maximise visibility and sales.
Wholesale is a distinct channel with its own shopper missions and purchasing behaviours, so it’s important that our approach reflects that. We work closely with our partners to understand how consumers shop within wholesale environments and how we can bring St Pierre’s strong in-store credentials to life in ways that are relevant for their customers.
Whether through tailored merchandising, promotional activity or category support, our focus is always on helping wholesalers drive incremental sales, increase shopper engagement and unlock additional value from the bakery category.
How can wholesalers maximise sales of the category?
Premiumisation continues to be one of the biggest drivers of growth within bakery, so wholesalers should focus on products that offer shoppers a reason to trade up.
Products that work across multiple occasions tend to deliver stronger value because they appeal to a broader range of consumers and missions. Innovation is also important, as new formats can attract additional shoppers and create excitement within the category.
Finally, effective merchandising and clear occasion-based positioning can help retailers demonstrate how premium bakery products fit into breakfast, lunch, dinner and entertaining occasions.
How do you work with wholesalers to help them grow sales?
We see our wholesale customers as strategic partners and work closely with them to identify growth opportunities within bakery.
That means sharing category insight, supporting new product launches, creating tailored promotional activity and helping customers understand how best to merchandise and position the range.
Our goal is not simply to sell products. It’s to help our wholesale partners grow value within total bakery by offering premium, quality products that shoppers actively seek out and increasingly recognise.
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