Its latest product to be added to its stable of wrapped bread offerings – including Soft White, Tasty Wholemeal, 50/50, HiFibre White, Farmhouse Batch, Seeded and Crusts Away – is formulated from a new blend of flours to deliver what the company claims is ‘the best ever toast experience’.
Backing the claim
The company is offering a money-back guarantee should customers not be entirely satisfied.
Super Toasty will be available nationwide at multiple grocers and convenience retailers from January 4, 2017, with a MRRP of £1,25 ($1.54).
The bread follows the launch of Kingsmill Toasties in October, which the company claims sold a million packs in its first week on shelves.
Massive marketing rebrand
Kingsmill has also announced a £10m ($12.3m) rebrand in an effort to boost category sales by reminding consumers how much they love toast.
Moving away from the traditional blue, its entire product range will now be wrapped in golden yellow packaging, featuring a handwritten typeface and a ‘K’ shape window to show the bread within, created by design agency BrandOpus.
“We want to be bolder and brighter to reignite the love people have for bread,” Zoe Taphouse, category director for Allied Bakeries, told BakeryAndSnacks. “The new packaging is designed to give Kingsmill greater stand out on shelf, too. Bakery represents a huge opportunity for us, the retailer, and the consumer and we want to be a driver of its evolution to help deliver future growth.”
Reawakening the love
Although bread is the number one reason why people go to a convenience store, the sector – which represents 54% of the wrapped bakery category – is in a major decline and felt a loss of £150m ($185.5m) in the UK in 2015, reported AC Nielsen.
Conversely, the remaining 46% – made up of cakes, ‘free from’ and other packaged bakery – saw a rise in growth.
In an effort to stem the decline, Taphouse believes the rebrand and launch of Kingsmill Super Toasty will present a huge opportunity for the category.
“Such an extensive rebrand will place bakery front of mind for both retailers and consumers, reminding them of the excitement and variety in the category,” she said, adding that the company aims to get the category back on track within the next three to five years.
“Almost 80% of consumers don’t have health issues with bread,” said Anna Millichamp, marketing manager for Kingsmill. “They’re becoming more focussed on balancing micronutrients rather than exclusion diets.”
Apart from its wrapped breads, Kingsmill’s range includes Sandwich Thins, Crumpets, Hot Cross Buns, Rolls, Waffles, Pancakes, and newly launched Toasties.
Allied Bakeries is a part of Associated British Foods (ABF) plc, which has a turnover of £12.9bn ($15.95bn) and employs over 118,000 employees working in 47 countries. The conglomerate, which also produces the Burgen, Allinson’s and Sunblest brands, has nine production sites across the UK.