Milling & Baking News - December 27, 2011 - 26

Sweet Goods Update 

Tasty transition injects energy into sweet baked goods category
hile unit sales rose only a shade less than 1% for the category, the past year was one of signiﬁcant change for the sweet goods segment. According to data from SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research ﬁrm, bakery snack unit sales in the 52 weeks ended Nov. 27, 2011, totaled 1,104,988,000, while dollar sales rose 4% to $1,785,208,000. But it was not necessarily a ﬂurry of new product introductions or change in consumer attitude toward more indulgent items that spurred the growth. Instead, it was the May acquisition of Philadelphiabased Tasty Baking Co. by Flowers Foods, Inc., Thomasville, Ga., that may have had the most signiﬁcant impact on the bakery snacks category during the year. Since acquiring Tasty Baking for $175

million in May, Flowers has been hard at work integrating the business into its direct-store delivery segment. This has included the introduction of the Tastykake brand to Flowers’ core consumers in the South and Southwest. The transition has served many of Tasty Baking’s brands well so far. In the 52 weeks ended Nov. 27, Tasty Baking’s bakery snack dollar sales totaled $176,751,400, up 13% from the same period a year ago, while unit sales increased 6% to 94,612,720, according to SymphonyIRI. During the same timeframe, dollar sales of Tastykake Krimpets rose 20%, Tastykake base products increased 8%, and Tastykake Kandy Kakes advanced 3%. “The Tastykake team has done a good job at growing their sales inside their core market (i.e., Philadelphia, Harrisburg/ Scranton, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh),” said Brent Bradshaw, vice-president of marketing for cakes at Flowers Foods. “Building on that solid and growing base, Flowers has expanded the brand into the
26 / December 27, 2011 Milling & Baking News

Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-South, and even parts of the Midwest. The response from our customers and consumers has been very positive. We’re ﬁnding that many consumers in the South are already familiar with the brand because they either relocated from the Northeast or have family or friends in that area.” On the new product front, Mr. Bradshaw said Flowers this past year introduced Tastykake Black and White Krimpets, a new spin on Tasty’s existing iconic Butterscotch Krimpet. The Krimpets consist of a chocolate sponge cake, vanilla icing, and cream ﬁlling. “It’s a delicious snack and has performed well,” he said. Also, the company recently introduced a Tastykake Red Velvet Cupcake. “Red Velvet is an increasingly popular ﬂavor, and consumers have responded favorably,” he said. “And, we have introduced some new seasonal layer cakes under Blue Bird, which are also selling well.” For the nation’s largest sweet goods baker, Hostess Brands, Inc., Irving, Texas, the past year saw ﬂat sales overall. Bakery snack dollar sales inched up 0.10% to $579,840,200 despite a 1% decline in unit sales to 340,177,000. Each of Hostess’ top six bakery snack brands recorded year-over-year dollar sales gains, led by a 6% increase in Hostess Sno Balls and a 3% gain in Hostess Ho Hos. In July, Hostess expanded its Donettes line with the launch of Frosted Devil’s Food Cake Donettes. The devil’s food cake donuts are dipped in chocolate and are available in 10.5-oz Dunkie Bags, 11.25oz Dunkie Bags, 12.2-oz Sweet Sixteen Dunkie Bags, and 3-oz single-serve sleeves. “Donettes continue to be one of our most popular sweet baked goods,” said Mike Touhey, vice-president of snack marketing at Hostess. Privately-held McKee Foods Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn., is the nation’s No. 2 bakery snacks maker with dollar sales of $387,021,000, according to SymphonyIRI. The company’s dollar and unit sales rose 5% in the 52 weeks ended Nov. 27, led in large part to strength in the Little Debbie brand. The Little Debbie base business rose 7% in terms of dollar sales, to $220,163,700, on a 7% increase in unit sales to 184,124,700.

Also rising 7% on a dollar sales basis was the company’s Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies brand. Unit sales of Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies rose 6%, according to SymphonyIRI. Dawn Foods Products, Inc., Jackson, Mich., is looking to reinvigorate its Weight Watchers line of sweet baked goods with the relaunch of Weight Watchers Mufﬁns. The company’s bakery snacks dollar sales slipped 14% in the 52 weeks ended Nov. 27, according to SymphonyIRI, with the Weight Watchers brand sustaining a loss of 19% during the period. As part of the relaunch, Dawn has made several improvements to its blueberry and double chocolate mufﬁns, said Jamie Grifﬁs, associate brand manager for Dawn Foods. The changes include larger chocolate chips, more wild blueberries, a coarse sugar topping, smaller-sized mufﬁns, and new packaging featuring four mufﬁns per carton versus three for the same price. “We launched the new Weight Watchers Mufﬁns based on strong consumer desire for sensible versions of two of the most popular mufﬁn varieties: blueberry and chocolate,” Ms. Grifﬁs said. “Our consumers told us that diet plans that require eliminating certain products or product categories, especially their favorite ones, do not work. We focus on achieving a combination of solid nutritionals and really great taste with our Weight Watchers Sweet Baked Goods product line so that consumers can still enjoy the sweet baked goods they love. “Consumers on a weight management plan want sensible products that allow them to participate in the sweet bakery category without feeling like they are compromising on taste or ﬂavor. Taste, convenience and portion control will continue to drive consumer purchases of sweet baked goods in the future.” MBN
— Eric Schroeder

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Milling & Baking News - December 27, 2011

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