Predictively meeting consumer needs and desires forms the mantra for so much of the bakery industry today. This means understanding that some classic, tried-and-true products should stay just that—classic, tried-and-true, unchanged in the face of today’s prevailing and emergent trends. Meanwhile, other product areas—including reformulation projects and new product development—require a judicious hand in establishing target shopper demographics and associated core product characteristics.
We continued to see strong brand dominance in the top five companies and brands across many bakery categories, according to data provided by IRI, Chicago. Elsewhere, multiple trends continued to shape the state of the bakery industry over the past year—including better-for-you, gluten-free and flavor diversity—all of which will progressively mature over the next year and beyond, impacting every category in bakery in at least one shape or form and capturing more dollar share.