Sugar distributor Napier Brown is rolling out a retail sugar brand designed to take the hassle out of home baking.

The Whitworths for Baking range - fine caster, superfine icing, fine Demerara, crunchy Demerara, light soft brown and dark soft brown sugar - will sell in a range of weights from 350g to 600g that all carry an rsp of £1.50.

They are packed in re-sealable pouches that can stand on their own and feature recipes and colour-coding to help shoppers navigate the range. Napier Brown is also launching a Twist and Sprinkle icing sugar tube with built-in sieve.

Research had highlighted that spillage and waste from split packs of sugar was the biggest gripe for consumers, said marketing director Andrew Brown, who claimed the new pouches would address these concerns.

While the sugars would sell at a slight premium compared with other packs on the market, shoppers would be willing to pay extra for the added convenience, he added.

“Packaging is a big issue for shoppers but there’s been very little innovation in the retail sugar market for a number of years,” he said.

Sales of sugars typically used for baking - such as brown, caster, Demerara and icing - rose 15% last year to £98m compared with an overall sugar market increase of only 1% [Kantar Worldpanel 52w/e 7 August 2011].

“Home baking has seen incredible growth over the past few years,” he said. “This is the first stage in the revitalisation of Whitworths sugar.”

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