Midlands Co-operative sees baking sales rise as bread-baking program inspires customers.

Midlands Co-operative has seen a 38 per cent rise in like-for-like sales of home-baking ingredients such as yeast, flour and eggs as customers attempt to bake their own bread.

Inspired by popular BBC2 series, Paul Hollywood’s Bread, where he kneads his way through a repertoire of bread recipes from classic bloomers to pizza dough, customers following suit are baking bread from scratch at home.

Michael Spencer, Head of Retail Trading at Midlands Co-operative, said: “We’ve noticed that shows such as the Great British Bake Off and most recently Paul Hollywood’s Bread on BBC2 have inspired customers to bake at home.  We’ve enjoyed good sales growth of home-baking ingredients but customers are still buying bread for every day use too so they’re perhaps choosing to bake at weekends as a hobby.

“We’ve also seen a rise in sales of our in-store bakery goods by 9 per cent like for like so maybe those who aren’t keen on baking would still like to experience the option of freshly baked breads.”

For more information on Midlands Co-operative Society visit http://www.midlands.coop