bread

The price of milk: few things in grocery are more emotive. See the reaction to Morrisons’ 12 pints for £2 deal this week for proof. Milk gets so many so hot under the collar for good reason: 281 dairy farmers have shut up shop in England & Wales this past year, says AHDB Dairy, as supermarket price wars have raged, global commodity markets have slumped and farmgate prices have plummeted.

Bread, that other great staple of grocery, is befalling a similar fate. As we reveal in this week’s Focus On: Bread & Baked Goods report, the wrapped bread market has lost almost £140m in the past year as prices have sunk to a new low. The baking industry employs tens of thousands, yet barely an eyelid has been batted. It’s easy to see why.

The link between Britain’s dairy farmers and low milk prices is plain to see: real people are going out of business; the economies of entire regions of the UK are being battered. Unlike milk, bread is dominated by big brands. The big three bread brands (Warburtons, Kingsmill and Hovis) command a massive 77% of total market value. Much of the blame for the market’s decline should be laid at their feet.

Yes, retailers have a role to play (in-store merchandising of standard wrapped bread is desperately uninspired in many cases), but the big brands are giving their retail customers very little to play with.

Bread has become a commodity because the big brands are stuck in a bygone era, their sales rolling away like the Hovis boy down that cobbled street. They’re speaking a language (wholemeal, farmhouse, granary, etc) that people no longer want to hear. Households are getting smaller, yet the big brands are for the most part still touting their oversized and outdated 800g loaves.

Bread should be exciting. And I’m talking mainstream, wrapped loaves here, not the la-di-da sourdough your local artisan bakery knocks out. In the US, Dave’s Killer Bread has just rolled out its range, which looks more rock n roll than bread roll with lines including Powerseed and White Bread Done Right, nationally. In Australia, Helga’s Lower Carb is showing how bread can adapt to health trends.

Here in the UK, bread has been weighed down by its heritage. There are those that are moving with the times - Hovis’s Chia Bread and Northern Irish baker Irwin’s Nutty Krust are noteworthy examples – but for the most part, bread’s biggest players are moving too slowly. The days of standard sliced loaves are gone. The world speaks a different language now. Bakers need to wake up.

The UK needs its own Dave’s Killer Bread.

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