Category growth is driven by mixes (a mainly branded sector), as it was last year. Mixes have gone up 18% in value to £33m. This comes through a rise in penetration and spend per trip, while frequency has fallen in line with the category trend. Product innovation through part-prepared cookie and muffin mixes aided growth, perhaps as a result of capitalising on wider convenience and snacking consumer trends. Also popular are brand extensions and licensed children's products such as Cadbury's products and Green's Cartoon themed products. The biggest sector is snacking fruits, 28.3% of the category in spend, growing 2%. This growth is affected by a fall in price on a top line level. Price per kilo is down 4% this year. However, volume growth fuelled by new buyers led to the top-line value increase. Frequency of purchase is again a problem, down 6%. Own label products (65% share) are in decline while brands are in growth. The biggest brand is Whitworths, fuelled by its performance in baking fruits. Waitrose and Morrisons are the top performers this year. Morrisons' performance is driven by attracting new buyers, following the top-line Morrisons grocery trend. Tesco and Asda are also attracting large numbers of new buyers, but they do it through snacking and baking fruits. The growth in Waitrose, surprisingly, comes through an increase in frequency of purchase. Christmas, of course, has a big effect. Value performance was down 3% in the 12-week period over Christmas and new year. However, snacking fruits and flour mixes are becoming more important, and these do not peak significantly over Christmas, so home baking seems to be becoming less reliant on a seasonal uplift. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}