Brioche breaks America

12 January, 21

Brioche experts, St Pierre have rounded off another successful year Stateside, maintaining the top spot as market leader and securing a coveted listing with retail giants, Costco.

Part of the St Pierre Groupe, the business was granted the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2019 and continued meteoric growth for the St Pierre brand in America throughout 2020. Sales of the brand in the United States were up 63 per cent year on year, accounting for more than half of St Pierre Groupe global business in 2020, just six years after launching Stateside.

Success on the other side of the Atlantic has also led to extraordinary growth for the wider group, which has doubled in size in the past 2 years, even hiring 23 new colleagues since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The recruitment drive coincided with impressive UK growth, deepening UK distribution for the company’s brands with new listings across retail and wholesale channels including Tesco, Ocado, NISA and Booker.

The brand attributes its US success, in part to its novel approach to merchandising – with Eiffel Tower stands adorning supermarket aisles across the country. This eye-catching tactic is also being rolled out in other territories in a bid to emulate similar success. Marketing activity is now underway to support the sales activity taking place in Ireland, the UK and the Middle East.

The latest retailer to embrace the growing trend for Brioche in the US, is the globally recognised, Costco. St Pierre’s Brioche Burger Buns and Brioche Hot Dog Rolls will be available in 57 of Costco’s Northern California stores from early 2021, in a larger twin pack format.

Paul Baker, founder of St Pierre Groupe says, “We dream big and we chase our goals. There’s real momentum for all three of our brands at the moment – globally St Pierre is up 46 per cent, Baker Street 30 per cent and Paul Hollywood 67 per cent. We exceeded £100 million turnover in 2020 for the first time, which puts us on track to hit our £150mn target by 2022.

“That means we are keeping up the pace, capitalising on the momentum we have worked so hard to build and really increasing our marketing efforts in all territories. It’s a difficult time for so many businesses and we do realise how fortunate we are. As such, we have also doubled-down on our efforts to support the wider industry and local initiatives throughout the pandemic. Since March we have donated over $1mn worth of product to charitable causes, globally.

“When we started out in export in 2012, we could have never imagined the success we’ve achieved. Now the pressure is on to maintain it. The opportunity is there and we’re making key hires to help drive the US branded proposition. Our recruitment drive is already paying dividends, with new listings being secured each month – including our Costco win. We’re a Manchester business taking French products to America – it might not sound like a recipe for success, but we’re definitely doing something right!”

This year promises to be another busy year for the company, which has secured significant listings for the St Pierre brand in new territories including Mexico, Korea and the Dominican Republic. Plans are also underway to trial products in Panama, with new in-store marketing plans for the Middle East to help deepen distribution.

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