Muffins continue to gain momentum within the bakery department, with a sales increase of 14 percent during the past five years. Regular muffin items are the category’s key driver, contributing more than half of the category’s dollar share and increasing 5.8 percent during the 52 weeks ending Jan. 28, 2012.
During this timeframe, the national average muffin contribution to the in-store bakery was 4.4 percent, which mirrored the previous year’s share of bakery sales. The muffin category includes regular muffins, mini muffins, muffin tops/crowns and gourmet/jumbo muffins. Nationally, muffins averaged $464 per store per week, a 2.8 percent increase from the previous year. Muffins posted the highest average sales during August and September, driven by back-to-school promotions.
The muffin category saw peak sales during the week of Oct. 8, 2011, with $527 per store per week. Another significant week for muffin sales occurred during the week ending Aug. 27, 2011, when muffins averaged dollar sales of $515 per store, helping drive overall category growth by 4.3 percent. Muffins experienced their lowest sales the week of Dec. 31, 2011, with $339 per store. During this holiday period, bake-at-home and leftover holiday treats contributed to low muffin sales.
Average weekly sales for the muffins category remained stable in all U.S. regions compared to the previous year. The East region maintained the highest average dollar sales with $1,037 per store per week, more than double the national average. In addition to outperforming the national average in weekly dollar sales, the East region also surpassed the national contribution to the total bakery department with a 7.0 percent contribution; the national contribution was 4.4 percent.
Within the muffins category, regular muffins accounted for 53.1 percent of category sales, followed by gourmet/jumbo muffins at 31.9 percent. The remaining category contributions included mini muffins at 13.8 percent and muffin tops/crowns at 1.1 percent. All four muffin types experienced dollar sale increases when compared to the previous year.
Regular muffins and other muffin items continued to post high dollar sales. Regular muffins’ contribution to the muffin category increased from 52.2 percent to 53.1 percent, a growth of 5.8 percent. Within regular muffins, other regular muffins’ dollar sales increased 20.2 percent.
This sales review is provided by the Nielsen Perishables Group. Reported results are for Jan. 29, 2011, through Jan. 28, 2012, representing more than 63 percent of national supermarket ACV share. For more information, contact Nielsen Perishables Group: Kelli Beckel, 773/929-7013; email: Kelli.Beckel@nielsen.com
