St Pierre is the UK’s fastest growing bakery occasions brand. It is now available through the nation’s major multiples and wholesalers serving retail and foodservice operators.1
Wholesale Manager sat down with Rachel Wells, Global Commercial Director at St Pierre Groupe to understand how a growing brand keeps the focus on customers and what’s next in brioche, bakery and beyond.
What is your background? How long have you been at St Pierre and where did you work before that?
The food and beverage industry is so fast-paced and constantly evolving – that’s what I loved about it when I started in sales with Britvic 15 years ago. That passion stayed with me as I worked my way up in Princes Foods – taking the opportunity to work across Commercial, Category and Marketing roles – and it’s stronger than ever after five years at St Pierre Groupe.
Tell us about your role. What is a typical day for you?
I’m sure everyone says this, but I don’t have a ‘typical’ day. The remit of my role is global, managing a large team who are working to ensure continued growth of the St Pierre brand in the UK, US, UAE and Spanish markets. As a senior leadership team, we have big ambitions for the brand, and as part of the world’s biggest bakery business, Grupo Bimbo, we’re scoping out new opportunities in terms of product and distribution all the time. Not having a ‘typical’ day is one of the reasons I so enjoy my role, though!
How have you stayed customer focused in your role?
Pardon the pun, but our customers are our bread and butter. If we’re not focused on our customers, then we’re not going to win together. We have built fantastic relationships with our customers and in doing so, we’ve secured distribution with ‘the big 5’ major multiple retailers in the space of five years – that’s no mean feat and it’s testament to how we work in partnership with our retail and wholesale customers.
Sharing insight is crucial. Understanding different shopper and consumer needs and then delivering solutions that allow our customers to cater to those has stood us in good stead. From new product development to innovative merchandising solutions that create in-store theatre and add to the in-store experience, we listen to our partners and work with them to ensure that we’re not only progressing the St Pierre brand, but also delivering results for our partners.
What is the value of the UK bread/bakery sector?
Total bakery is in growth and is now worth £4bn in the UK. It’s not just growing in value, but also holding steady in volume.2 This is noteworthy as volumes have taken time to recover after a period of decline. There are a few factors at play driving this growth though, particularly when we look at shopper habits.
The first thing to note is that ‘bakery occasions’ is growing ahead of total bakery and therefore driving much of the growth in the wider category. Bakery Occasions consists of a few key areas – all of which are arenas in which St Pierre plays. Breakfast, Lunch & Evening Meals, Snacking and Breads of the World are the four components, and they are each in growth of between 4 and 16 per cent year on year.2
We’re seeing people shopping more frequently, with younger shoppers coming into the sector. Snacking is also back in growth after a hiatus and breakfast continues to boom.
What trends are driving the market?
Breakfast accounts for the largest portion of the Bakery Occasions segment and it is in steady growth, too. The fastest growing segments within breakfast are pancakes and continental and what we’re seeing is shopper desire for premium offerings. That’s why we launched our two-pack All Butter Croissants last year in Morrisons and why the product is now available in Tesco stores nationwide as of June this year, too.
Lunch & Evening Meals is the second largest segment in Bakery Occasions and is growing fast – up 7 per cent and 5 per cent in value and volume respectively.2 In this subsector, it is Rolls that are the star performer – again, a stronghold for the St Pierre range.
Meanwhile, ‘Bread’ is only growing one per cent in value and ‘Cake’ is static. That’s part of the reason we’re seeing so much innovation in the Bakery Occasions subcategory. Premiumisation and more exploratory flavour combinations are driving growth as shoppers look for new ways to enhance their meals. Innovation is bringing new shoppers into the category and bringing them back to the bakery aisle more frequently.2
How is the St Pierre brand currently performing?
St Pierre is the fastest growing top five brand in ‘Bakery Occasions’ and we continue to achieve year-on-year double digit growth. We are broadening the range we have listed with the nation’s biggest retailers and wholesalers and are now available in Waitrose – the last major multiple retailer in the UK to come on board.
This is all testament to the way we listen to our customers, share insight from consumers and then adapt our products, promotions and packaging accordingly.
Can you give us examples of successful ways you are working with your customers in 2025?
We pride ourselves on the way we work with our customers to bring the brand to life in-store. Last year, that saw us try lots of new high-impact formats including swing-gates, branded bays and utilising new digital solutions in-store.
This year, we’ve worked on co-branded shippers alongside Heinz to maximise BBQ season sales.
Our launch into Waitrose this year is another example of how we build long-term relationships in order to aid growth for our customers. By consistently sharing insight, category and market data, competitor activity and case studies from other markets, we deliver value for our customers beyond quality products.
Do you have any NPD to talk about at the moment?
This summer we launched our first ever limited-edition flavour, with our Spicy Chilli Brioche Buns. Available across Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, ASDA and Tesco until the end of September, the new product is spicing up barbecues and bringing a little heat to the bakery aisle.
The limited-edition helps add a little extra theatre for shoppers and is driving trial with shoppers who are new to the category.
The approach has worked incredibly well so far, and as a result we have more limited-edition products planned for 2026.
What marketing support does St Pierre have for the brand this year?
In April of this year, our Eat Avec Respect campaign returned to UK TV screens. After a successful launch last summer, we once again invested in ‘above the line’ communications, with updated assets to deliver greater brand recall.
We updated the ad to increase brand visibility throughout and have supported a longer, three-month campaign with a new raft of social media activity, consumer PR, out of home and in-store execution.
The aim was and is to reach more people than ever with this summer’s ‘Eat Avec Respect’ campaign. We’ve taken learnings from last year’s launch, to refine the comms and ensure continued uplift in brand awareness.
What’s more, in true St Pierre style, we’ve been trialling new shopper marketing tactics to support our retail partners in delivering an elevated in-store experience and urging UK consumers to ‘eat avec respect’.
How can wholesalers maximise their bread sales?
Offering the right product mix, by being dialled into trends and customer needs is so important for wholesalers. They have a wider audience to cater to but we work with them in the same way as our retail customers to ensure that we’re communicating the latest trends – matched to our product innovations, bespoke wholesaler marketing support and category insight.
The launch of our limited-edition Spicy Chilli Brioche Buns has also been great for wholesalers – food service operators can charge a premium for an upgraded bun, while retailers benefit from the same excitement as major multiples when they can offer a limited-edition SKU.
We also ensure that our marketing works in the wholesale setting too – for consistency in messaging – but also to create engagement with the brand in the depots too. It’s just as important in the wholesale setting as it is in retail, even if the shopper missions are different. Brand-building works equally as well in wholesale as it does in retail and we recognise that, which is why the wholesale channel is always central to our marketing and promotional plans.
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