When it comes to food service bakery trends, the market has done a 180-degree turn over the past decade, noted Liz Rayo, senior vice-president of marketing and innovation, CraftMark Bakery, Indianapolis.
“Not long ago, in-store bakery and food service customers were saying, ‘We don’t want cookie dough. We don’t have the time. We don’t have the labor. We need thaw-and-serve. It has completely swung to, ‘We want to bake off because consumers want fresh and authentic.’ We’re also seeing a blending of food service and retail,” explained Ms. Rayo, who previously worked at Otis Spunkmeyer and is part of CraftMark Bakery’s veteran management team with a total of 250 years of experience in baking.
As supermarkets and other retailers offer a greater variety of fresh-baked goods, she added, they are competing more effectively with food service with a variety of take-away food and even in-store dining alternatives.
“There are so many options now,” she said. “We see this as a huge opportunity for us. With in-store bakeries, we’re seeing the trend around being able to bake-off products, whether it’s cookies or bread.”
Sure, in-store bakeries still face a skilled labor shortage, and many supermarket chains often opt for baked-off bread and fully baked products that are shipped frozen and slacked off on the store level. However, fresh has emerged as the predominant trend in the food industry. Maybe that will prompt more brick-and-mortar supermarkets to invest in their in-store bakery/delis to lure consumers who are increasingly shopping on-line in today’s digital age and will soon face further competition from Amazon and Whole Foods.
