Foodservice operators turn to bakery category for value driven solutions to meet increased consumer demand
/The continuous economic pressures in the form of rising interest rates and energy costs is driving consumer demand for more value in their dine-in and takeaway food offerings – and bakery is a product category which can deliver this in spades, by reducing the need for labour and minimising preparation time.
DARREN O’Brien
That’s the word from Tip Top Foodservice Innovation Manager Darren O’Brien, who keeps his finger on the pulse of the market and has noticed a distinct shift over the past year.
“If you go back 12 months the outlook for the foodservice market seemed more optimistic – people were thinking we were getting back on track after Covid, and most venues were well patronised,” Darren says. “But now we have a real decline in frequency of dining out, and when people do go out to eat there’s reduced spend. Some foodservice operators are reporting that their dining in and takeaway trade has declined by as much as 30 per cent.
“What we typically see is that there’s a trade down in where consumers are choosing to spend their money and this has led to some closures for café and restaurant businesses while others have cut back their operating hours, and others again have been reshuffling menus trying to find what sells best, and making some quite dramatic changes.”
Darren says the key message is adaptability – “you have to work to the current market conditions, you need to be flexible and be able to adapt rather than just say ‘this is what I do’. Right now people are looking for value and at the same time operators are working with reduced staff, so they need to come up with ways to reduce their costs and produce food with a minimum of labour and prep time.
“Making burgers with pre-sliced buns is easy, putting garlic bread on the menu is easy – buying in frozen bread products helps you control your staffing costs and at the same time keeps the speed of food preparation and delivery at maximum. It’s one thing trying to be fast because consumers want to be served quickly, but when you’re having to make do with a reduced workforce, you want them to be utilising their time in the best way – which isn’t standing around slicing bread or burger buns.
“We’re seeing a predominance of Mexican and Italian style burger fillings as the ‘world flavours’ trend continues”
“From Tip Top’s perspective as a major supplier of bakery, we’ve seen a change in the balance of what we’re selling – certain things go up while others come down as the market shifts, but we’re able to stay on track. We currently have a lot going on in new product development especially with some of our bigger customers – everyone talks about the resilience of the market, and it looks like the big players are getting ready for the next bounce back, which is positive.
“Customers are also coming to us asking for presentation ideas, such as what can they do to freshen up their burger offerings? A lot of that is around flavours and textures – we’re seeing a predominance of Mexican and Italian style burger fillings as the ‘world flavours’ trend continues.
“We have a pretty solid new product development pipeline – we’re doing some innovative work on garlic bread formats at the moment which we’ll be launching in due course. For burgers, we’re also working on a couple of new formats in the premium buns space, as that area just seems to keep growing so we tend to try something a little different every couple of years.
“Our Potato Bun is still our biggest seller in the burger buns category – while the Milk Bun is the highest seller across the category overall, and Brioche buns are still very strong. But Potato for us is the fastest growing and the best choice for any operator who says they want to elevate their burger offering – the flavour profile of the Potato Bun goes with everything, and it’s a vegan product as well which ticks the boxes in terms of both convenience and versatility of application.
“A Potato Bun will go with just about everything because it is a little sweet but with a savoury note to it as well”
“Milk Buns are very strong and that category is still growing for us too – they have a nice creamy texture, soft and easy to bite into, and I always think they’re beautiful with spicy builds because they add a perfect soft complement to the spice: a hot honey chilli chicken burger works so well with a Milk Bun, a Potato Bun will go with just about everything because it is a little sweet but with a savoury note to it as well, and Brioche Buns are great for those heavier burger flavours, such as with strong barbecue style sauces.
Innovation in lunch rolls
Darren says we’re also seeing innovation in the lunch roll space – “lunch as a daypart is coming back in our urban areas, as more and more people return to working in the city offices as opposed to working from home. We’re seeing a return of the workers and that’s driven an uplift in café trade as more and more people go in for their lunch offerings. So operators are keen to get more variety on the menu but again keeping that value pricepoint so we’re currently doing some work in the elevated breads area which encompasses not only lunch but dinner sharing options too.
“It’s all around texture, flavour and appearance – people are looking for breads with extended fermentation times, which brings up the flavour and changes the presentation. We’re talking about very delicate doughs with high water content so they deliver a soft but chewy texture – the customer can bite through them but then has to chew away for a bit, and that adds to the sensation that the food is filling.”
“People are looking for breads with extended fermentation times, which brings up the flavour and changes the presentation”
As Australians’ palates continue to mature, Darren argues that consumers are more keen to experiment than in the past when dining out – “in fact people tend to play it more safe at home with their bakery choices, but when they go out they’re looking for something new and different to try. They will still go for a white grain predominantly rather than something like pumpkin seed or chia, but there is a lot more variety around texture – from Italian style ciabatta to white Turkish bread, French baguette style lunch rolls and even Vietnamese rolls which are lighter and fluffier inside while retaining a crunchy crust. All those different texture options are now prevalent in the lunch space.”
Garlic bread became a standout seller during Covid and has continued to hold this position since. “I think what happened was people really discovered garlic bread during Covid and saw what an easy option it was, and over the past 12 months it’s been adopted as the carrier roll for a variety of different builds – a typical example is an elevated build from a steak sandwich, or meats with Mediterranean vegetables served within. We’re also seeing the rise of the garlic bread pullapart – again with all these beautiful Italian style fillings, different cheeses and so on, even stuffing it with meatballs, then just serving it up on the table as a share plate and the customers are grabbing it and pulling it apart.”
There’s also innovation within the crumpets and muffins space – as chefs adapt their regular meals by substituting bread or buns with muffins and crumpets. “Crumpets have always been popular with sweet toppings like jam and honey, but what we’re now seeing is they’re being served with non-traditional toppings. It could be a Peking Duck pancake style meal but with those ingredients atop a crumpet – they’re interesting to look at and you get all those sauces permeating through the holes in the crumpet, making it a soft and chewy delight,” Darren says.
Burgers remain a strong player in the category, Darren emphasises: “We have a lot of customers telling us, ‘I need to jump on this, how can it work on my menu?’ It’s always very strong and there are so many variations of builds going on both locally and internationally. The big burger countries are clearly the US, Brazil, parts of Europe where it’s growing stronger, and there’s so many different things you can find now in burgers – it’s almost anything you can think of doing, you can take almost any meal and somehow adapt it onto a burger. We’ve seen hash browns on burgers, potatoes on burgers, a chicken in French mushroom sauce on a burger, even the old chicken parmi in a burger bun. There’s a lot of work being done with sauces – I saw last week a chicken stroganoff burger, which was really fantastic, a terrific flavour combo which also delivers on crunch.”
An overview of the bakery category wouldn’t be complete without mention of banh mi – which is getting a very big following now. “Banh mi is my go-to for lunch,” Darren says, “and there’s so much choice, from vegan versions to chicken, pork and seafood – it’s really a strong seller, so we’re currently doing some work in this space, and we’re likely to have a range of different sized buns coming along soon.”
