A bakery (or baker's shop) is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries, and pies.[1]Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.
Bakery products have become very popular throughout the country. Breads and biscuits are the most common products but other items like cakes, pastries, cream-rolls, cookies etc. are also not lagging far behind. These items are consumed by people of all age groups across the board. Nature of these products is such that the consumers prefer fresh items. Shelf life of cakes & pastries is limited and thus local manufacturers enjoy distinct advantage. In spite of continuous increase in the consumption of these items during last few years, the per capita consumption is still very low compared to the advanced countries. There is, thus, good scope for these items.
Bakery is a traditional activity and occupies an important place in food processing industry. Despite the advent of fully automatic and semi-automatic bread as well as biscuit making Plants, a sizeable number of people still prefer fresh bread and other products from bakery.
The bakery industry in India can be categorized into the three broad segments of bread, biscuits and cake. Only 40% of the 3m tonnes bakery products industry in India is in the organized sector, while the balance comprises of unorganized, small-scale local manufacturers (Samant 2002).With changing consumer tastes and with the entry of multinationals post liberalization, the average Indian is expanding his palate from just bread, cake and biscuits to more sophisticated pizzas and burgers. The consumers are increasingly going for newer options with respect to bakery products. Recently, there has been a steady inflow of MNC’s and other organized players in this sector, leading to increased competition. Few Companies that go through channel