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The refrigerated dough category looks to the smaller-household, health-and-wellness, and private label segments to reinvent itself.
Once the nearly exclusive preserve of moms feeding their young families, refrigerated dough products are now also starting to attract other shoppers as shifting demographics and concerns remake the consumer landscape.
The rising opportunities, say retailers and manufacturers, lie in healthier and more convenient products aimed at a more modern dough consumer. If grocers and vendors can work in concert to take advantage of emerging trends, they can make their mark on both baking sheets and balance sheets.
Credit refrigerated dough market leader Pillsbury for recognizing and seizing those opportunities. The division of Minneapolis-based General Mills saw that the half of all baby boomers set to reach or surpass the half-century mark this year represented a prime consumer target: smaller households that in many cases have seen their kids off to college or the independent adult world-in other words, empty nesters.
"This is a growing segment of the population whose needs are often unmet by traditional food products, since they're just cooking for two people," says Andy Dahlen, marketing manager for Pillsbury s refrigerated pie crusts, sweet rolls, and crescents businesses. "For example, [they] enjoy serving bread at mealtime, but don't like the waste associated with other bread alternatives. They're looking for more convenient forms of refrigerated dough."
That's where Pillsbury comes in, with products tailored expressly to empty nesters' needs, such as Perfect Portions biscuits, which recently expanded to four varieties-Buttermilk, Butter Tastin', Flaky Layers Original, and Reduced Fat Buttermilk-all available nationally. The products come in a bakery-style carton containing five individual twin-packs and a window through which shoppers can see the fresh dough inside. Preparation is a breeze: Home cooks just peel open a twin pack, place the contents on a baking sheet, and place in the oven for less than 15 minutes to get hot, fresh biscuits for two.
To promote the product, Pillsbury went straight to food shoppers in their natural habitat. Notes Amy Clark, marketing manager for Pillsbury's Perfect Portions Refrigerated Biscuits, "Perfect Portions recently mounted a large sampling effort in grocery stores, because our research has shown that once consumers have baked the product at home, they have a high likelihood...