Sara Lee brand launches new breakfast breads and English muffins
Made from a combination of enriched white flour for taste and whole-grain flour for nutrition.
06/01/06 If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. The latest proof of the old maxim is in the bread and bakery aisle where enriched white flour and whole-grain flour work better together than separately when it comes to attracting and satisfying mainstream consumers who aren’t ready to go 100 percent whole grain.
Following the success of its white bread made with a blend of whole-grain flour, Sara Lee is helping launch 2006 as the year whole grain goes mainstream by entering the breakfast bread and English muffin segments with product introductions that combine white flour and whole-grain flour so they taste like traditional baked goods but include whole-grain nutritional benefits.
In 2005, more than 400 whole-grain foods were introduced, according to ProductScan, and sales of wheat, whole-wheat and whole-grain bakery items far outpaced white-flour products over the past year. But the majority of consumers are still buying breads, buns, bagels and English muffins with nary a whole grain in them.
That’s why the most successful whole-grain product of 2005 and the most successful enriched white-flour product in 2005 were one and the same. Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Made with Whole Grain White bread, made from a blend of enriched white flour and whole-grain flour, has catapulted to the best-selling loaf of bread in America since its launch in July 2005 – delivering more than 125 million servings of whole grain to whitebread lovers in three months. The table has been set for 2006 to be the year whole grain goes mainstream throughout the bread aisle.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new MyPyramid Food Guidance System calls for Americans to consume at least three 1-ounce servings of whole-grain foods per day (or 48 grams of whole grain) and to balance their consumption of enriched-grain foods with whole-grain foods. Whole-grain consumption has been correlated with decreased risk of heart disease, stroke, some cancers and type-2 diabetes, and may aid in weight maintenance.
The sales of wheat, whole-wheat and whole-grain breads, buns, bagels and English muffins have increased over the past year, but the majority of sales are still white bread, white buns, plain bagels and traditional English muffins, according to supermarket sales data compiled by Information Resources, Inc., for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 30, 2005.
Dollar sales of wheat bread, buns, bagels and English muffins increased by 7.8 percent in the past year, while sales of white bread, buns, bagels and English muffins decreased by 1.9 percent, according to IRI. White products are still the biggest seller. Of the pounds of packaged bread, buns, bagels and English muffins sold, 57 percent was white products, 30 percent was wheat products and 13 percent was other flavors or varieties.
The Sara Lee brand is the largest and fastest growing fresh bakery brand in the country on the strength of the company’s leading product portfolio in fresh bread, buns and agels. The brand will enter the breakfast bread and English muffin segments by introducing differentiated products using the company’s flour-blend strategy.
