Supermarket Perimeter - September 2023 - 24

Bakery
By Jennifer Barnett Fox
PIE COMBINES PREDICTABILITY AND NOSTALGIA to create a
delicious way to showcase seasonal ingredients and regional tastes.
The words " comfort in a crust " go a long way to understanding
why pie continues to be a crowd pleaser. As a treat synonymous
with indulgence and gatherings, pie provides tried-and-true
comfort, offering traditional flavors along with infinite possibilities for
customization, regional flourishes and sparks of innovation.
Standard flavors such as apple, cherry, peach, blueberry, pumpkin,
key lime and pecan compose the majority of sales, demonstrating pie
is a reliable vehicle for authenticity. Despite its continuing popularity,
Circana found all flavors show unit decline except for key lime, which is
flat in unit sales.
Blackberry doubled in sales, but this is very small from a unit
perspective, according to Melissa Altobelli, client insights principal for
dairy and bakery vertical, Circana, Chicago.
Additionally, nostalgia remains a key driver in helping consumers
connect with the flavors and formats of their childhood, with Baby
Boomers and Gen X having the highest affinity for pie, according to
Catherine Wisloski, manager insights and customer experience, Dawn
Foods, Jackson, Mich.
But don't exclude younger generations as potential pie lovers just yet.
The heartwarming return of neighborhood pie shops in larger American
cities signals pie is successfully wooing new converts and pie continues
to hold a spot on one out of four restaurant menus.
Expanding the definition
True pie lovers understand something so good doesn't always require a
flashy calling card.
The humble dessert has long been deemed a delicious, if predictable,
dessert option. But with new desserts always competing for the
attention of consumers, it can be difficult for the pie category to assert
itself when there's always something newer and more Instagrammable
on the horizon.
Pie manufacturers are looking to change that mindset by offering
consumers new ways to think about when and where pie can be
consumed. Gardner Pie Co., a 75-year old pie manufacturer located in
West Newbury, Mass., is known for pushing boundaries.
With an eye toward the future, the company is expanding upon the
'what and when' of pie. This includes offering frozen pies with unique
flavor combinations, including colonial and a topped pies, a range of
24 - SEPTEMBER 2023
savory vegetable pies, mixed berry and smaller pies and South of the
Border traditional fruit pies with a hit of spice. Its South of the Border
Cherry Lime Chipotle flavor is an American Pie Council award winner.
At Tippin's Gourmet Pies, Kansas City, Kan., traditional apple and
cherry remain the favorite fruit pies, but during the holidays, these
selections take a backseat to pumpkin as the company's top-selling
pie. The holiday pie is known for its puree, which is aged two years to
enhance the natural pumpkin flavor and provide a slightly darker color
to the filling. Its other seasonal pies include chocolate walnut, pecan,
pumpkin cream and sweet potato.
Capitalizing on the popularity of the smooth cream pie filling of
its best-selling French Silk pie, Tippin's developed a new line of LTO
Celebration Silk pies. The silk pies feature rich scratch-made fillings and
rolled, flaky crusts in flavors such as Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,
Confetti Birthday Cake, Grasshopper, Butterscotch Chocolate Chip,
Chocolate Malt and Orange Dream - available in select stores this fall.
Tippin's is also making strategic decisions designed to focus on
bringing a younger consumer demographic to the pie category,
according to Robin Venn, president of Tippin's Gourmet Pies. The
company welcomed a new mascot, Tippi, to help introduce younger
consumers to the pleasures of eating pie. Tippi, who debuted at the
IDDBA show in June, also serves as the head taste tester for Tippin's Pies
and is ready to lend a hand with baking, slicing or tasting pie at any time.
Sharable options
Concepts like Tippi highlight the idea that pie is a social and sharable
dessert. Therefore, it's no surprise the top-selling pie sizes are 22-24
ounces, serving approximately six people.
Retail tends to focus on 9-inch pies and foodservice on 10-inch pies.
Consumers shopping at club stores can find even larger pies such as
Costco's new Four Berry pie with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries
and cranberries. The pie weighs approximately five pounds and serves
10 generous slices.
Whole pies show strong unit sales growth, up 8.8% and accounting
for 72% of sales with private label and store brands accounting for 76%
of sales. Circana anticipates continued unit growth in whole perimeter
pies. While sales of perimeter pies look to be declining overall in unit
sales, there's an uptick driven by single-serve individual pies.
Pies designed to serve 1-2 people have seen more than 50% sales
growth in the past year. Tippin's six-inch pie caters specifically to
supermarketperimeter.com
Tippins
http://www.supermarketperimeter.com
Supermarket Perimeter - September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supermarket Perimeter - September 2023
