FOR ARTISAN BREAD SALES, QUALITY COMES FIRST

ERIC THORSEN

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The success of any supermarket artisan bread program relies solely on quality, rather than any fancy packaging, price or promotion, a bread expert told attendees of the Atlantic Bakery Expo '98, here.

Daniel Leader, a dean at the French Culinary Institute in New York, award-winning cookbook author and owner of Boiceville, N.Y.-based Bread Alone, stressed that supermarkets must preserve the very qualities of artisan breads that set them apart from more conventional varieties.

"[Buying artisan bread] is like drinking a great wine," explained Leader. "It's about sight and smell."

He said the domestic artisan-bread industry is just beginning to be understood by supermarkets, though he praised retailers for being "very sensitive to what's going on," as they continue to learn about shelf life, the importance of quality and the types of breads consumers like.

In discussing the potential for fine bread sales in the United States, Leader pointed to the success of bread bakeries in Europe, particulary Poilane in Paris. Sales of that bakery's hearth-baked artisan bread accounts for about 8% of all the bread consumed there, he said, although they have a very limited selection.

"The most famous baker in Paris -- the most famous baker in the world -- has an [entire] selection of six breads," said Leader. "It is something to think about -- that this man has been able to market these quality breads so effectively, while having no variety. Just based on quality -- just based on freshness."

When it comes to purchasing bread, the European consumer's attitude toward the product is very different from that of the U.S. consumer, explained Leader. He said that consumers there "turn their bread buying into a personal experience," standing in line and basing their decision on the color and shape of the bread.

"Bread consumption in [the United States] is not very high," said Leader. "But if Americans ate bread the way the Germans do, every baker I know would be baking seven days a week, 24 hours a day. They couldn't keep up."

He said that if U.S. supermarkets started marketing and selling "quality" bread products like those produced in Europe, consumers would start buying more of them.

To that end, Leader cautioned operators anxious to cash in on the artisan bread phenomenon to resist cutting corners that would significantly lower product quality. He said too many supermarkets are using inferior frozen doughs, baking them off and packaging them under fancy labels that say Old World, Artisan or European-Style.

"Either you build a proper bakery in store and do it right, or you buy it from somebody that does it right," said Leader. "I think that it is a disservice to the industry if we're taking frozen bread dough and putting it in a rack oven and calling it artisan-style bread."

He suggested that supermarkets wanting to offer artisan breads but unwilling to invest in capital improvements to their in-store bakeries simply outsource the business. "[The product] has to be something that people will go out of their way to buy," said Leader.

Through his company, Bread Alone, which operates three retail outlets in the Hudson Valley region of New York and two in Austin, Texas (a fourth location will open this month in Houston), Leader addressed several areas that supermarkets need to examine if they are to create and execute a succesful artisan-bread program.

Leader said the most effective way to sell is through customer sampling. He said he has offered consumers samples of his products for years, either in store or at events like regional festivals.

In conjunction with the sampling, he also recommended that supermarkets hire at least one knowledgeable salesperson to merchandise the bread. With culinary schools graduating more bakery specialists than in the past, trained personnel are becoming readily available. They, in turn, can educate other bakery personnel and shoppers.

"What I've found is that sales increase with customer knowledge," said Leader. "Supermarkets tend to think that they're going to lose sales if the bread isn't an impulse purchase."

To create a powerful buying impulse, Leader said, retailers must properly merchandise the artisan-bread line. He suggested that retailers use displays that are simple, like wooden or metal racks that come equipped with wire shelves and can be customized by adding a wooden base.

"You want the customer to really see the product," said Leader. "It's not the type of product that you want to bury behind the fancy packaging."

According to Leader, packaging has always been an issue with supermarkets. He said his company is "continually battling" them to sell the bread unpackaged.

Leader cited supermarkets in San Francisco as the best marketers of artisan bread. There, retailers use six to eight self-enclosed racks with glass doors that "really allow the customers to see the bread." Consumers can open the rack, catch the aromas and inspect the crusts before selecting a loaf with a pair of tongs.

Leader recommended wrapping the bread in paper only when sold and took a firm stance on the question of selling sliced loaves.

"[If] your customer is asking for a sliced loaf of bread to take home, and you put it in a slicer and put it in a bag, it's fine. But to sell [it already] sliced breaks the integrity of the bread," he said.