St Pierre Groupe is refocusing its Paul Hollywood bakery brand after its fresh loaves lost their only major supermarket listing.

The 400g Wholemeal Country Loaf, made with stoneground flour and topped with oats, and 400g White Country Loaf, topped with poppyseeds and millet, were launched in Tesco in May 2019 as part of a four-strong NPD range that marked Paul Hollywood’s move into fresh bakery.

However, they have since been delisted by Tesco, while the Belgian Chocolate & Orange Teacakes – which were launched at the same time – are expected to be delisted shortly.

“New product development is an ongoing part of the brand evolution as consumers seek out innovative and alternative bakery products. Sometimes, as in the case of the Paul Hollywood fresh loaves and teacakes, the level of demand is not quite as high as anticipated,” St Pierre Groupe told British Baker.

The delisting of the Hollywood loaves is against a backdrop of continued falling wrapped bread sales in the UK. Overall category value fell by £11.6m, equivalent to -0.8%, while the number of packs sold declined by 2.7% [Kantar 52 w/e 16 June 2019].

St Pierre Groupe said the Paul Hollywood brand was going from “strength to strength”, noting a 47% increase in value sales, according to internal sales data [52 w/e 1 September 2019].

In particular, the Stonebaked Flatbreads – which completed the NPD quartet – are performing well, having already sold 120,000 packs.

“Recent investment in consumer insight means that we can continue to focus our efforts on the best opportunities. Flatbread sales are growing by 12.7% in value and 9% in volume year on year [Kantar Bakery Market 52 w/e 21 April 2019], so this is a very positive time for St Pierre Groupe and its Paul Hollywood range,” the company said.

Other products in the St Pierre Groupe Paul Hollywood portfolio include Ready to Bake Crusty White Rolls, Multi-Seed Crusty Rolls and Rustic Rolls, which made their debut in 2015.

Hollywood also has a range of cake mixes, which are manufactured by Premier Foods.

The celebrity baker and Great British Bake Off judge has also partnered with food-to-go business SSP, which operated brands including Starbucks and Upper Crust at travel locations, on a new bakery concept called Knead. It opened at Euston station in 2017, but was forced to close earlier this year as building work started on the High Speed 2 (HS2) development.

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