Great British Bake Off effect lifts home baking

02-Sep-2014 - Last updated on 03-Sep-2014 at 10:45 GMT

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Paul Hollywood, one of the judges and presenters of The Great British Bake Off

BBC One’s The Great British Bake Off is reviving flagging home baking sales, which have been slumping since the beginning of the year, according to market analyst IRI.

IRI data indicates a dip in sales of baking products in the first six months of 2014, when value sales fell by 3.2% and volume sales by 6%. And a recent Mintel report linked falling sales to negative press surrounding sugar.

However, figures began to rise again in the past two weeks – correlating with the start of The Great British Bake Off, IRI has claimed.

‘Decline in sales’

“Since the beginning of 2014, we have tracked a decline in the sales of home baking products that is in line with the whole FMCG [fast moving consumer goods] sector,” said Tim Eales, IRI director of strategic insight.

“However there are clear signs of a link between sales of some home baking categories and the TV show The Great British Bake Off. Even while shoppers continue to cut back on how much they buy from the major supermarkets, they can’t seem to resist the lure of baking goods at the start of the new TV series.”

Seasonal events would continue to fuel this growth, said Eales. “We expect this upward trend to continue over the autumn and winter months as key events such as Halloween, Christmas, Pancake Day and then Easter all whisk shoppers into another baking frenzy.”

‘Keen to get back into the kitchen’

According to its research, the sales increase was primarily driven by families that were keen to get back into the kitchen and cook for themselves. Despite sales rising steadily every year, TV programmes such as The Great British Bake Off had fed the trend by educating, not just simply entertaining, them, providing encouragement, ideas and recipes to follow.

Sales of baking products had increased by 62% from January 1 2007 to August 23 2014, adding £219M to total sales, according to IRI. Products covered by the data were: flour, culinary aids, bread mixes, bread yeast, cooking chocolate, culinary aids, decorating and covering products, dried fruit, mincemeat and pastry.

Sales of cake decorating and covering products as well as culinary aids had increased the most in the past seven years, said IRI.

As might be expected, the Christmas period contributed the biggest single uplift in sales every year, it added.

Full-year sales of home baking products reached £582.6M in 2013, a rise of 4.1% on 2012 sales of £559.5M, according to IRI.