Brioche breaks America: St Pierre ends 2020 as No1 US brioche

Brioche experts St Pierre have rounded off another successful year in the USA, 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 YOY, accounting for more than half of St Pierre Groupe global business in 2020, just six years after launching there.

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 two years, even hiring 23 new colleagues since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The recruitment drive coincided with impressive UK growth and 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 its 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 that 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 £150 million target by 2022.”

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.