Cheesecakes hold steady as slice of total supermarket in-store bakery pie.
The national average cheesecake dollar contribution to total in-store bakery sales was 1.8 percent in the 52 weeks ending May 30, representing no change from the previous year's contribution to total in-store bakery sales. Contribution to the cake category, however, rose from 5.8 percent to 6.2 percent for the year, indicating a slight decline in cake category contribution to overall bakery. Nationally, cheesecakes averaged $164 per store per week, a 3.2 percent increase from the previous year.
The category saw its highest sales nationally during the week of Dec. 27, 2008, with $397 dollars per store per week and 11.6 percent increase from the previous year. This peak in sales coincides with the holiday season boom in sweetgoods sales. Another significant peak week for cheesecakes was during Thanksgiving 2008, when cheesecakes averaged dollar sales of $285 per week per store. Still, this represented a drop of 0.7 percent compared to Thanksgiving week the previous year. Cheesecakes saw their lowest sales of the year in consecutive weeks in late April and early May with $130 per week per store, a decrease of 6.9 percent and 10.3 percent respectively, compared to the previous year.
Average cheesecake weekly dollar sales grew in all regions compared to the previous year with the exception of the West. The West region generated the second largest average dollar sales, but sales decreased by 3.4 percent compared to the previous year. The East region had the highest average dollar sales with $225 per store per week, well above the national average.
Despite the strong loyalty of New Yorkers to New York-style cheesecake, the East region fell short of the national cheesecake average dollar contribution to total bakery sales. The East region's cheesecake contribution to total bakery dollar sales was one of the lowest of the regions at 1.6 percent, same as the prior year's contribution. The Central region sold an average of $158 in cheesecakes, and was the only region with double-digit sales growth at 17.2 percent. The South region reported the lowest amount of sales in the last 52 weeks, an average of $136, but still increasing 3.5 percent compared to last year.
Within cheesecakes, assorted/variety cheesecakes are the largest cheesecake segment. Nationally, assorted/variety cheesecakes contributed 32.8 percent to cheesecake sales. The second most popular cheesecake segment was plain cheesecakes, contributing 24.6 percent, followed by other cheesecakes at 21.5 percent, strawberry cheesecakes at 11 percent and other fruit cheesecakes at 10.1 percent.
While retailer coding is primarily used within the in-store bakery, cheesecakes have historically been nationally coded UPC items, primarily thaw and sell. UPC-coded cheesecake sales contributed 61.3 percent to total cheesecake sales, which is an increase of 3 percent from last year. However, the remaining 38.7 percent of cheesecakes are sold as retailer-coded items, further illustrating the importance of looking at sales of both UPC- and retailer-coded items in the in-store bakery.
This sales review, provided by the Perishables Group FreshFacts® powered by Nielsen, includes supermarket in-store bakery scanner data results from June 7, 2008 through May 30, 2009, represeenting more than 62 percent of national supermarket ACV share. For more information, contact the Perishables Group's Kelli Beckel by phone: 773/929-7013, or e-mail: KelliB@perishablesgroup.com.