​Focus On Home Baking: 25 July

Focus On: Home Baking, by Daniel Selwood

Publishing: 25 July

Advertising deadline: 15 July

Download the synopsis

Submissions deadline: 8 July

The story

How fancy have Brits’ home-baked goods become? Brits went bonkers for baking as the UK went into lockdown. They began with simple fare, such as banana bread. But after nearly three months being stuck indoors – and assisted by innovations from retailers and brands – people’s baking skills are likely extremely well-developed. What sort of things are they making now? And how is grocery helping in terms of innovation and advice? Is this the beginning of a new age of sophisticated home-baking? Will the craze continue as the lockdown steadily eases?

Key themes

Demand: just how big did the baking boom get during lockdown? What baked goods were most popular? And which suppliers benefitted the most? How did they service demand, and what are they doing now that people’s baking skill have developed? What are the baking products most in demand now – and why?

Children: with schools closed and kids stuck at home, how much interest have youngsters taken in baking? How have grocery suppliers encouraged and assisted children to learn to bake – and what have the kids made?

Looking forward: can the baking boom continue as life returns to something resembling pre-Covid normality? How can grocery ensure it will? What will people bake with less time but also, given the impending recession, less cash?

Flour: demand for flour surged soon into lockdown, with supermarkets struggling to satisfy demand. Millers worked round the clock to double production of retail flour, in an effort to meet restock empty shelves.

Other ingredients: the pandemic saw ‘baking ingredients’ become one of grocery’s most searched terms online. As well as flour, sugar, eggs and butter experienced massively increased demand. How much so? How have suppliers satisfied the call for baking ingredients – from the essentials to fillings, icing, decorations and the rest?

Health: comfort-eating and indulgence were all the rage during lockdown – making home-baking an ideal past-time. But there are also people who, understandably during a health crisis, wanted to eat healthily without losing the joy of baking. What were their needs, and how did grocery satisfy them?

Banana bread: it’s already synonymous with the UK lockdown – but what is banana bread, and why has it proved so popular with Britain’s amateur bakers?

Kantar data: using Kantar commentary, we explain the reasons behind the rise and fall of the relevant home baking sectors

Nielsen: using Nielsen commentary, we explain the reasons behind rise and fall of the leading home baking brands.

Innovations: we identify four new products that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before including launch date and RSP, and a picture of each.