Bread basket value

A cikk a Trade magazin 2024/8-9. lapszámában olvasható.

Dr. Zoltán Tóth
managing director
Lipóti Pékség

Zoltán Tóth, managing director of Lipóti:

“In 2023 we had to take into account two factors that were increasing our costs: one is the continuous rise in wages and the other is the newly introduced public heath product tax (NETA), which is now included in the price of the product as a separate tax. Many people wouldn’t think that the HUF 420 price of a smoked cheese croissant includes HUF 27.3 NETA and HUF 64.07 VAT”. Lipóti’s store number is growing by 8-10% year after year. The basket value of individual purchases is rising in forints due to inflation.

István Mikos
corporate director
Ceres

“In addition to the high quality of our products and the fact that they offer value for money, the strengthening health-conscious consumer segment is also playing a role in our innovation work. We also have to consider the growing number of single-person households when determining the size and format of our products”,

says István Mikos, corporate director of Ceres.

Modern bread must always be an essential element of modern nutrition, and the company’s innovations are always backed up by the latest research data available, which they use to analyse changing consumption habits.

Consumer-centric thinking

Klára Ludwig
founder-managing director
Jókenyér

Klára Ludwig, founder and managing director of JÓkenyér:

“After the drastic changes of the previous two years such as the growing energy, fuel and raw material prices, the weakening of the forint and the difficulties on the labour market, production costs in the baking industry consolidated in the second half of 2023 and in 2024, so there was no need to readjust prices”.

The company’s pricing is driven by the need to provide as many customers as possible with high quality, additive-free bakery products at affordable prices.

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Szilárd Kelemen
commercial director
Fornetti Group

“Thanks to our ability to adapt quickly, we have always passed on the cost increases to our consumers in good time, but only to the extent necessary. This consumer-centric thinking also explains why we aren’t changing the diversity of our product selection. Fornetti is the region’s most successful bakery company, serving one million customers a day”,

stresses Szilárd Kelemen, commercial director of the Fornetti Group.

More conscious consumers

Miklós Osztermayer
managing director, Hungary
Lantmannen

“Our costs have increased significantly in recent years for the well-known reasons, and the recent drop in energy and raw material prices is only enough to ensure that we don’t plan further price increases in the short term. As for our product selection, we have seen that the gap is narrowing between our standard and premium products. Consumers are buying more consciously: more often in smaller quantities, from special offers and in smaller sizes”,

explains Miklós Osztermayer, managing director of Lantmannen in Hungary.

They make products that meet new market needs: the Natur’A range is a new generation of breads.

Zoltán Matskási
marketing and
business development director
Pek-Snack

Zoltán Matskási, marketing and business development director of Pek-Snack:

“The past year was challenging for us too, but this year is different – we haven’t been forced to increase prices significantly. This is certainly a reason to be optimistic. However, the average basket value has decreased, as consumers are buying what is necessary and avoid luxury items. The frequency of purchases has also fallen, suggesting that shoppers are planning their purchases better”.

Adapting

Sarkadi Katalin
marketingvezető
Abonett

“Compared to the previous year, in 2023 there was less stress in the domains of raw material, packaging and energy costs. This basically meant that price volatility came to a halt and unit prices for the main cost items stabilised – albeit at a much higher level than before – making this financial year more predictable. At the same time the EPR charge was introduced. In 2024 packaging and paperboard prices are already up 10-15% compared to last year”,

informs Katalin Sarkadi, head of marketing at Abonett. Abonett product prices have only seen a minimal increase.

Zoltán Tóth added that every year Lipóti develops 15-20 products, from which 6-8 are introduced to the market after testing. Today there is a growing demand for sliced and packaged products.

“In Hungary wheat flour is the most popular and the breads made from it strongly dominate the Hungarian taste landscape, so using flours made from non-traditional grains such as rye and/or spelt wheat flour – or even the wholemeal versions of these – or enriching the dough with seeds could also be trendsetting”,

underlines Melinda Mórocz, head of marketing at JÓkenyér.

In Hungary, average consumption has now fallen to 50-52 kg per year

Appropriate responses