make the grade in thelatest Kantar report

The country’s love affair with cupcakes shows no sign of abating, as their sales at in-store bakeries leapt by 41.6% in the last year.

Kantar Worldpanel figures show that the popular sector was by far the biggest winner at in-store bakeries, followed by cookies (+11.5%), scones (+11%), swirls (+9%) and muffins (+8.1%). The only loser was cake slices, which fell by 2.8%. Kantar’s report for Rich Products shows that the total cakes and pastries market was worth £1.6bn up 4.4% year-on-year (yoy) in the 12 months to 27 December 2009. Within that, in-store bakery had a 16.2% share (-0.2% yoy) while non-in-store bakery had a 77.8% share (+5.1%).

Non in-store bakery is driving overall growth in the sector through purchase frequency, along with price increases. In-store bakery is in slight decline, with fewer shoppers and price deflation driving this. But existing shoppers were spending more this year and adding in-store bakery to their cake and pastry repertoires, says Kantar.

The top four supermarket retailers dominated in-store bakery sales, particularly Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. Morrisons was performing 16.7% above the average ISB market, although Asda, Sainsbury’s and The Co-op saw falls (down 10.6%, 6.5% and