IDDBA’s November Impact Report for bakeries

The International Dairy, Deli and Bakery Association (IDDBA) released their latest report on bakery buying trends for November.

The report measured the same amount of sales from last year, as well as the trend during the pandemic.

For November, the bakery division had their slowest month since March. “As deli, dairy and bakery are all slowly trending back to normal, building strategies on how we can keep the dollar at retail will be crucially important with several big grocery holidays coming up,” said Jeremy Johnson, VP of Education for IDDBA in the report. “Restaurants have developed very strong takeout and delivery platforms and we are seeing many holiday meal solutions being offered. Retail can also draw upon the many pandemic lessons including a look back at pandemic affected holidays to see where demand for the winter holidays may sit, what worked and what didn’t.”

Sales of dessert type items or sweet snacks is tapering off a little each month and breakfast items are also slowly trending back to normal. “Impressively, all areas within the center store bakery recorded gains in the year-over-year comparison,” said Jonna Parker, Team Lead Fresh for IRI. “Bagels have seen stellar sales results all pandemic long and it looks like the popularity of croissants is only heating up. Areas that are trending down somewhat include pastries, Danishes and coffee cakes, pies, donuts and snack cakes.”

The perimeter bakery is significantly smaller than the bakery aisle and results were mixed. As seen throughout the pandemic, the more functional items of breads and rolls are mostly trending above year-ago levels. But desserts, sweet snacks and breakfast items continued to be below 2019 sales trends. These results are affected by the closing down of bulk, self-serve sections as well as the very different nature of celebrations and gatherings amid the pandemic. Unlike the center store bakery, the perimeter bakery performance by area is much more mixed. Only four areas reported increases, including breads, croissants, English muffins and tortillas/ wraps and flatbreads.

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