Lauren Meadows is Brand Manager for St Pierre UK, having taken on the role in October 2020. Prior to joining St Pierre Groupe, Meadows held a range of roles – both retailer and supplier side – covering planning and shopper activation for household names including Iceland, Kellogg’s and Co-Op Food.
Can you tell us a little of the history of your brand?
St Pierre is an authentic European bakery brand. We specialise in brioche, made to an authentic recipe, in France and branded to deliver a taste of Paris to consumers, no matter where they are in the world. The brand started as a ‘white’ label but has been through something of an evolution over the past decade. Now, St Pierre is known for the quality of its products and its distinctive orange shine and as such it is the number one brioche brand in the UK and the USA.
How has the bakery category been performing over the last year?
Bakery is such a fast-paced category – it’s one of the reasons I so enjoy what I do; I’m definitely kept on my toes! ‘Bread’ as a category has been fighting an uphill battle this year but as of the end of July was only down 0.2 per cent – it was as low as six per cent down six months ago. That said, there are some areas of growth that retailers are understandably watching with interest. Morning Goods is one of them, up almost five per cent in the last 52 weeks – and perhaps most importantly for St Pierre, Rolls is the second – up almost six per cent. Whilst six per cent doesn’t sound like it will set the world alight, when you consider the value of the bakery category is £2.9bn, that six per cent looks a lot more significant.
And how has your brand been performing?
With growth of 206 per cent in the last two years, St Pierre is the fastest growing bakery brand in the UK and we have broken in to the Top 10 biggest UK bakery brands. Four St Pierre products alone have added £20 million to the Rolls category in the last year, which is more than some of the biggest names in bakery. We have maximised consumer trends, worked collaboratively with retailers and listened to our customers in every setting and our approach in doing so has well and truly put us on the map. It’s a brilliant time to be working with St Pierre – we really do have the best quality products and we’re testing and learning all the time. I’m obviously biased, but we have an incredible opportunity to take the St Pierre brand to the next level and I am really excited to play a part in that.
What are the biggest trends in the bakery market?
Premiumisation is a trend that emerged during the pandemic and shows no sign of slowing down. Shoppers have become accustomed to quality food at home and even in the midst of a cost of living crisis they are looking for ways to elevate their everyday. The reality is, the luxury of dining out and/or travelling will still be out of reach for many – so upgrading certain elements of staple menu items is an affordable luxury.
I believe premiumisation and offering the choice is vital in any category but it’s particularly important in bakery. If you look at other categories – like coffee – they go beyond the ‘good, better, best’ options because it’s such a popular fixture. The same is true of bakery and as a brand, we are working with our customers to offer improved choice.
Are sandwich alternatives such as bagels, pittas and wrapped rolls growing in popularity? How much market share do they have?
The bagels sector has been experiencing phenomenal growth. Over the past two years, it’s up 10 per cent and whilst the growth is slowing in more recent times, it’s still a huge uplift, leading the way as the biggest sub-category within morning goods and worth £145 million.
As a brand, St Pierre is up 80 per cent on last year and that’s testament to the growth in popularity of brioche. That’s why it made perfect sense to us, to develop a product that caters to the popularity of two growing markets. We launched our Brioche Bagel in April this year and we’re excited to see how customers find new ways to work with our versatile products.
The Monterey Jack’s chain in Scotland have already launched a Bagel Burger using our product and heralded the new menu item with a dedicated TV advertising campaign. We’ve taken the quality brioche for which we’re known and applied it to a bakery staple and it’s working.
How is the sweet bakery sector performing? Is it in growth and gaining market share?
The short answer, is yes. Sweet bakery is on the up, but there are sectors within the category that are outstanding. Croissants and pains au chocolat are all in double-digit growth and we are looking to maximise that growth with our latest reformulation.
At St Pierre, we are constantly reviewing product quality – it’s what our brand is known for. As part of that process, we recently reviewed the recipe for both our multipack Croissants and Pains au Chocolat and decided to make a few changes, simply to give us the best-tasting product. A happy by-product of doing so is that both products are now suitable for vegans. That works to make the brand accessible to an even larger audience and research shows that one in three vegan shoppers are looking for a sweet treat. Now, that audience can enjoy St Pierre.
Are St Pierre Burger Buns and Hot Dog Rolls in growth?
Our core range of products are our Brioche Burger Buns, Seeded Brioche Burger Buns, Brioche Hot Dog Rolls and Brioche Baguettes. Driving trial of these core range products is key for us because we know, once customers try St Pierre – they will keep coming back. That’s especially important in the retail setting because popular, quality brands drive profits for retailers. We work alongside customers to develop merchandising solutions that really demonstrate the versatility of our products. From marketing materials, to in-store promotions and presentation with branded shippers, we are delivering stand out and engaging shoppers in a branded experience as soon as they see us.
Our approach is different, and it works because when we win, our customers win, too.
How is St Pierre building consumer awareness and loyalty?
One of the best things about working with St Pierre Groupe is the freedom to try new things. As a business, we’re not afraid to run test and learn projects – that’s linked to the culture and entrepreneurial background of St Pierre Groupe, but it means that as a marketing team, we are learning all the time.
We are increasing consumer-facing activity in every channel this year, as the brand grows. From in-store merchandising to out-of-home advertising, restaurant collaborations, TV advertising, social media campaigns and everything in between, we have been steadily building activity to peak during the summer months supporting BBQ season. However, what’s key for us is maintaining momentum once summer is over. We are working to carve out a place for St Pierre in the hearts and minds of consumers at times of year where you might not expect us to.
All of our activity is designed to deliver an experience that makes people pick St Pierre in the first place. That approach has reduced the ‘seasonality’ of the brand, too. Because we’re inspiring customers to use our products with different meal occasions and delivering a consistently top-quality product, we keep customers coming back, regardless of the time of year. That’s why we won’t be taking our foot off the gas through Q4 this year, with key campaigns supporting Halloween, Bonfire and of course, Christmas.
Comments are closed.