Bakery Market Overview

Future drivers such as snacking and food-to-go, local sourcing and bake-off products expected to create positive growth trends in the bakery sector over the coming years.

European bakery consumption has been very static over the past decade but was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, falling by almost 2% pa between 2019 and 2021. With 38 mio tons in 2021, bakery consumption is going to follow a positive trend in the coming years, recovering from the Pandemic.

The new Gira European Bakery Company Panorama, published in November 2022, provides a comprehensive analysis of bakery product consumption, distribution, and production structure in 29 European countries + Turkey. There is also a unique League Table ranking the top 200 European industrial bakers according to their bakery turnover.

Current sector challenges and opportunities:

• The shift from fresh to packaged bakery products seen during the COVID-19 crisis will fade
• The demand for local production, sustainability, and healthier products, as well as home-baking and food-on-the go, will continue, whereas premiumisation may be temporarily limited by high inflation
• In bakery distribution, some long-term trends are expected to remain, such as shopping locally, on-line sales and home deliveries. The foodservice sectors have been strongly affected by lockdowns but are now seeing dynamic trends
• Bake-off will become the number one supply method for total bakery products in 2026.

Figure: Bakery products consumption cumulative growth by supply origin– 2021/2026f

Contact us to find out how Gira can help you turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities.