Tesco advises bakers to learn from cereals

Plant bakers could learn a lot from breakfast cereals producers when it comes to promoting the benefits of the product range and growing the sector, Tesco’s category director for bakery claimed last week.

Scott Clarke told the Federation of Bakers’ annual conference that bakers should stop fighting each other for market share and do more to promote the benefits of bakery. “Growing the category is more sustainable for all of us than share stealing,” he said.

While plant bread sales were rising as people reverted to making their own lunches, the bakery sector needed to adapt to changing consumer demands to avert the “spectre of declining volume bread sales” in the longer term, said Clarke. With £1.30 the average lunch box spend, there was an “opportunity for baked goods”, he said.

“Food pricing is now the number one priority for consumers,” warned Clarke, who noted the increasing importance of promotional sales. But as the country emerged from the recession, customers would be “looking for quality and more new product development”, he argued.

Clarke said the three main challenges facing the bakery supply chain over the coming year were in improving product availability, raising efficiency and driving out costs. Tesco needed to be more flexible in how it displayed its bakery range on-shelf, he accepted. “A more sophisticated view of what customers want in store is needed, without reducing choice.”