Sales of bread in UK supermarkets are on the decline, according to statistics recently published by Euromonitor, as reported by internationsupermarketnews.com.
Sales of packaged bread in Britain dropped by five per cent during 2014, and are expected to drop by about another four per cent during 2015.
The three biggest branded bread-makers in the UK – Warburtons, Hovis and Allied Bakeries – have seen their collected annual profits plummet by £148 million. Together, these three firms create about 60 per cent of the UK’s packaged bread.
Though increasingly grocers operating in Britain are turning to gluten-free bread, which has seen its popularity strengthen in recent years, only about three per cent of supermarket bread sales are accounted for by that which falls into the gluten-free category.
Supermarketnews.com remarks that it is incumbent on supermarket chains in the UK to adapt to the fact that bread is “no longer the ultimate staple of British consumers.”
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
