European bakery market, mature and transforming

In many European countries bakery products are consumed as staple food. The market is well established in terms of product array, distribution channels, regulations, innovation platforms and consumer preferences. However the sector is undergoing significant changes due to increasing health concerns, rising disposable income and high demand for convenient food products.

Apart from convenience, European consumers are looking for instant and nutritious food products to help them reducing their calorie and sugar intake, without lessening of taste or pleasure. The most consumed bakery products include biscuits and breads while the demand for other bakery items such as cakes, pastries and cookies are also increasing. Breads and rolls have dominated the baked goods segment, while pizzas have the highest potential growth due to higher demand for frozen as well as chilled pizzas.

Germany is the market leader in the European baked products marketswith a growth of 3.0% per year, followed by UK with a growth of 2.9% per year.

Source Mordor Intelligence

Trends & developments in bakery products

• Changing consumer lifestyles for a healthy living drives the growth of bakery products such as cakes, biscuits, bread, pastries and morning goods;
• Developments and innovation are geared towards the addition of healthy and specialty ingredients in bakery products. European consumers prefer natural and allergy-free additives in their staple food;
• The key trends include gluten-free, wholegrain, ancient grain and additive free bakery products;
• Elderly population prefers to consume low calorie, low sodium and high-fiber breakfast cereals;
• Increasing tourism drives the growing demand for instant, ready to eat, globally known, low cost and easy to store products such as doughnuts and muffins. As a result the number of low hurdle outlets, such as small kiosks and road side shops, are growing.

Challenges and opportunities

• Aging population and focus on health are driving EU consumers to look for healthier alternatives such as fresh, organic, artisan, added-value and ethnic baked goods;
• Gluten-free and organic products are other forces driving the bakery market to meet the increasing nutritional demands;
• The bakery sector is quite competitive. Its dynamic in terms of innovation and quick response to consumer demands;
• The growth of European baked products market is driven by the increased demand for healthy, instant and nutritious baked products;
• The traditional morning goods in Europe are witnessing the rise of gluten-free, wholegrain, ancient grain and additive free products. These products have high sales potential in the coming years as consumers don’t want to loose taste with healthy ingredients;
• Environmentally friendly packaging are set to impact the consumer choices as well as manufacturer’s product mix and promotional strategies;
• Modern retail channels, driven by hard-discounters, are crowding the market strongly;
• Both ends of the market, the premium segment and low-price products, are growing;
• Reducing food waste and an emphasis on local production are attracting attention in almost all countries.

Bakery market-wise, European bakeries are continuously looking for innovations to expand their product portfolio, launching new products and adopt packing-level modifications such as environment friendly packaging, increased shelf lives of baked products, easy to carry and easy to eat products.

Bakery operations-wise, bakers are looking for well-made, highly reliable equipment for efficient operations and to reduce the labour input needs. Besides they are looking for equipment that are fairly easy to operate and easy to maintain. They are in need of optimised systems and solutions, comprising of best for purpose unit operations.

Optimisation of Capex and Opex is also materialised through the implementation of used bakery equipment, integrated in updated systems and solutions.