One of our 10 Things You Need To Know About… Cakes & Biscuits

Bigger isn’t always better. Brits have splashed out an extra £45.4m on small cakes, with the likes of Cadbury Amaze Bites and Thornton’s reaping the benefits [Kantar 52 w/e 17 July 2016].

“Amaze Bites has been phenomenally successful,” says Graham Hunter, MD of sweet treats at Premier Foods, which holds the licence for Cadbury cakes. “They’re worth about £6m right now.”

Since hitting the market in October 2015, Amaze Bites has teamed up with Absolutely Fabulous to launch a new Chocolate Raspberry special-edition flavour.

The key to Amaze Bites’ success is shareability. “Amaze Bites targets a sharing need and that’s a new development for the cake industry as we started to move into those more indulgent bitesize propositions,” Hunter adds, noting it meets consumer needs traditionally met by confectionery.

Cadbury cakes’ sales overall are up 8.2% on volumes up 1.2%, while Thorntons saw sales soar 13.2% on volumes up 8.4% [Nielsen 52 w/e 10 September 2016]. The latter, according to Richard Hawney, Finsbury Foods’ head of marketing, category and insight, is driven by small and celebration cakes.

“We’ve seen strong growth in small cakes and the bite market with own-label and branded options, such as Thorntons,” explains Hawney. “It’s a format that appeals to a couple of key consumer trends such as health and on-the-go.”

The trend is playing out in biscuits as well, with the likes of Bahlsen launching Pick Up! Minis in August. “Portion control and pack size have become prominent considerations for consumers,” says Julien Lacrampe, trade marketing manager at Bahlsen.

Previous article: Buyers: Promotions ‘stripping’ profitability out of biscuits

Next article: Help your elf: Our top picks of Christmas cakes & biscuits

10 Things You Need To Know About... Cakes & Biscuits