Uk Bread Market

British Bakeries is a part of Rank Hovis, the UK’s largest flour milling business, itself a division of Rank Hovis McDougall or RHM Group One Ltd. The core business of British Bakeries is wrapped sliced bread, both branded and retailer own-label, and it supplies about a third of the UK’s plant bread; approximately 16 million loaves each week. The company also produces speciality bread, rolls and baps and morning goods. There are around 450 different types of bread in its product range and a little fewer than 900 varieties of morning goods.

The principal British Bakeries brand is Hovis. Hovis used to be a dedicated wholemeal/wheatgerm brand but has now become the umbrella brand for most of the British Bakeries’ products such that the old Granary brand, signifying a malted wheat bread, is now tagged as Hovis Granary. Hovis-branded products run with the strapline ‘Get something good inside’

The bakery category is the seventh largest in the UK grocery sector, and includes bread, rolls and bakery occasions.

Bread is the biggest and fastest growing category within bakery, consistently achieving 99% household penetration.

Macro Level

The UK bread sector is worth over Ј3 Billion and accounts for about 6% of the total food market in the UK.

Within this sector, the total wrapped bread market is worth more than Ј1.2 Billion and is growing by around 8% (Source: TNS Superpanel).

White bread dominates the market with more than 70% of the share.

Value (ЈMillion) Share %

Plant White branded 597 48.6

Plant Brown branded 193 15.7

Plant White Own-label 148 12.0

In-Store bakery white 124 10.1

Plant brown Own-label 109 8.8

In-Store bakery brown 59 4.8

Total Wrapped Bread 1,228 100.0

UK Expenditure on Bread and Bakery Products by

Place of Purchase (Ј and %), 2002/2003

Industry

The Federation of Bakers, a trade organisation that represents the interests of plant bakeries with a turnover of over Ј10 million, lists ten member companies operating 55 plants throughout the UK. The largest of these are British Bakeries Limited with 15 sites, Allied Bakeries Limited with 13 sites, Warburtons Limited with 11 sites and Rathbones Bakeries Limited with nine sites.

Allied