Kingsmill is piling the pressure on its slower-performing rivals Warburtons and Hovis with a new seeded bread range that is predicted to hit £10m in sales over the next year.

The Associated British Foods business will roll out the Secretly Seeded, Lightly Seeded, Really Seeded (rsp: £1.49) and Really Seeded in a Little Big Loaf format (rsp: 95p) loaves this month to plug a gap for a range that offers a wider choice in the amount of seeds in bread.

The Lightly Seeded loaf is billed as a bridge to the Really Seeded loaf and to Secretly Seeded a smooth white loaf with flecks of finely milled seeds and grains and targets mums who want to give their children healthier bread but find the current seeded loaves have a texture that is "too bitty" for most children, said brand manager Chris Heyn.

Although sales in seeded bread have increased 7.1% to £201m [Nielsen] over the past year, household penetration has plateaued, according to Kantar Worldpanel, and Heyn expected Kingsmill's new line-up to appeal to a broader audience. "As the modern, family-oriented brand of the big three bakeries, it is our duty to bring variety into the seeded sector," Heyn added.

Current seeded offers from Warburtons and Hovis which have recorded respective brand sales value declines of 2.5% and 3.1% compared with a 7.3% growth at Kingsmill were failing to draw in new consumers, claimed Heyn, referring to the Kantar findings.

"Names like [Hovis] Seed Sensations and [Warburtons] Seeded Batch sound evocative but our consumer research indicated that people were often confused and didn't know what they were getting," he said, "whereas the packaging on our loaves features labels saying either no bits, few bits or lots of bits. It's the 'it does what it says on the tin' approach."

Kingsmill had drawn on the experience of its sister brands Burgen and Allinson to develop the loaves and Heyn said the Kingsmill Seeds & Oats loaf, launched in February 2008, would be phased out to prevent duplication.

A £700k sampling campaign will support the launch throughout 2011