Analysis of the Bread Industry: Trends, Challenges, and Career Paths

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the bread industry, examining its current state, future trends, and competitive environment. It delves into the impact of Brexit on the sector, exploring both challenges and opportunities. The research employs a qualitative methodology, drawing on secondary sources such as books, journals, and online resources. The report identifies key trends, including the importance of taste, freshness, and healthy product offerings. It also assesses the competitive landscape, highlighting the rivalry between plant bakeries, in-store bakeries, and craft bakers. Furthermore, the report outlines various career opportunities within the industry, such as artisan bread bakers, food technologists, food packaging researchers, and quality assurance managers, and it details the required skill sets for each role. The report concludes with an exploration of creative and ethical leadership skills crucial for success in the bread industry, including transformational, visionary, and ethical leadership qualities.

CRAFTING YOUR FUTURE:
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND
RESEARCH

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Element 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Research essay.............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review........................................................................................................................3
How chosen industry in terms of directions and opportunities require specialised skill set.......5
Creative and ethical leadership skills..........................................................................................6
Element 2.........................................................................................................................................8
Digital showcase of self-reflection..............................................................................................8
Element 3.......................................................................................................................................10
Personal development plan........................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Bread industry is a dynamic industry that supplies food to millions of consumers every
day. The focus of bread is the production and selling of flour and wheat based products that are
baked in an oven. Products that are prepared and sold by bread industry includes bread, cookies,
cakes, pastries and pies and many other products are included in this industry. This report
includes a research essay, self-reflection and personal development plan.
Research Aim
“To analyse the changes, emerging trends and competitive environment within the bread industry
and to assess opportunities for career development in this sector”.
Research Objectives
 To review existing research and other literature review on BREXIT and profits in the
bread sector
 To analyse the situation regarding the profitability of this sector now and in the future
 To explore future trends in a bread industry in the next two-three years
 To identify the challenges in bread industry due to BREXIT
 To draw conclusions and recommendations on how to overcome the challenges facing the
sector
 To analyse the skills gaps in the sector and to assess opportunities for career
development.
Research Question
 What is the effect of BREXIT on profits in bread industry?
 What are the major trends within the bread industry?
 What are the levels of competition in the sector?
Research Methodology
This is a secondary research and research type for this research is qualitative research. In
this research data has been collected from secondary sources and these sources includes Books,

Journals and online sources for bread industry. Reason behind selecting secondary research is
that it requires less time and cost and to undertake and complete secondary research is fast
compared to primary research.
Element 1
Research essay
Literature Review
According to Coyne and et.al., 2018 UK bread industry is worth £3.9 billion and is a large sector
of UK food industry. Total volume of breads is under 4 billion units and equivalent to almost 11
million loaves and packs sold every single day. In UK bread industry is divided into three main
sectors that are larger plant companies that produces around 80% of brad sold in UK and in-store
bakeries within supermarkets that produces around 17% and high street retail bakers that
produces rest breads. In this plant bakeries produce mainly wrapped bread of a large scale. Three
quarters of all the breads that are consumed in UK and is wrapped in sliced for the purpose of
convenience and to maintain value. In plant bakeries many of the bakeries produce bread for sale
under the name of retailer and in this largest manufactures of bread are Allied Bakeries, Hovis
and Warburtons. These three producers of bread accounts for almost ¾ of bread market on the
basis of value. In-store bakeries are another type of bakeries in which bread is baked in-store and
most of the large retailers have ins-tore bakeries. Craft bakeries is another type of bakery
producing breads in which craft bakers bake bread on their own premises and this sector has
been declining for many years and have been squeezed because of competition.
In order to understand competition in bread industry model of Porters’ Five Forces can be used
and this is as follows-
Threat of New Entrants- This is concerned with threat from organisations that new
organisations can enter into industry and increase competition in industry. This gets affected by
barriers of entry that includes rules and regulations, skills and knowledge required, and
investment required for entering into industry. In bread industry threat of new entrant is high
because it is easy to enter into bread industry.

Threat of Substitute- This is concerned with threat of substitute and there are different
substitute for bread that customers can use in place for bread. This is why threat of substitute is
also high.
Bargaining power of suppliers- Suppliers are those people who can increase cost and price of
products in bread industry. High number of suppliers reduced power of suppliers and this makes
position of organisations strong.
Bargaining power of Buyers- There are several sellers and several buyers in bread industry
however power of buyers is strong and this power enables them to reduce the price of products.
Competitive Rivalry- This force of competition is concerned with competition and rivalry
within existing firms in industry. There are several firms operating in bread industry and they
have strong competitive rivalry.
As stated by Cherfas, 2020 some of the trends in bread industry include that taste and freshness
of the products should remain and this is first consideration and priority while buying bread. In
addition to this many of the customers prefer healthy products in bread and packed breads and
local breads that are affordable for customers. Concerned with competition in bread industry
there is strong competition in bread industry in which main competition is in between plant
bakers and in-store bakers and in addition to this insight bakers and craft bakers have main
competition. This is because most of the supermarket has in-store bread and this affects business
of craft bakers and then many of the craft bakers started their work as retailer and included
smaller convenience stores and garage forecourt shops. This has created their competition with
supermarkets selling breads, however in this some of the craft retailers also have started to
supply craft bread to supermarket.
As per the view of Louis, Fairchild and Setarehnejad, 2019 Brexit have affected every sector in
UK economy and bread industry has its own impact from Brexit. Because of Brexit cost of
ingredients have increased that are imported from EU countries, however other than this there is
no much difference and impact on the bread market can be considered. This is because around
85% of wheat is home grown that is used for the purpose of baking bread. Other than this,
because UK consumer prefers local and fresh bread this is also a benefit for bread industry and
key advantage lies in short shelf-life of the product. This means that because shelf life of bread is

short and this is why customers want fresh and local bread rather than imported from other
country.
Career opportunities
Every industry requires some specialised skills on the basis of tasks that are included and
completed in industry. Skill set also enable individuals to utilise the opportunities that are
provided by the industry and skill set for bread industry based on opportunities is as follows-
Opportunities in bread industry are as follows-
Artisan bread baker- Artisan bread bakers are those who work in bakeries and other places to
make high quality bread from scratch and using innovative ingredients.
Food technologists- Food technologists are required to study, physical, chemical and biological
composition of food and this is also an important opportunity in bread industry (Castro and
Posada, 2019). This is because in addition to studying components they also develop ways for
preserving, safely processing and packaging of food.
Food packaging researcher- Their work includes working with development and technical
teams on all packaging and identifying driving ideas, solutions and innovative solution for the
packaging.
Quality assurance manager- Quality assurance manager is a job that requires all products are
according to quality and hygiene standard (Sulistiyani, 2017). They work at manufacturing
facility and also at other departments to ensure adherence to safety standards for the bread.
This means that there several opportunities in bread industry that one can utilise for
direction in bread industry and every opportunity or role has different skill set. However some of
the common skills identified from above skills is team working, statistical analysis, organisation
and communication skills for opportunities in bread industry.
Skills needed in this sector
 Skills that an artisan baker requires include knowledge of food production method,
because artisan bakers are provided with scratch and innovative ingredients and this is
why varied knowledge of food production is important (Rachmawati and et.al., 2019). To

be able to pay attention to detail, when working with scratch and something innovative it
is important to pay attention to details in order to ensure quality of the product. Maths
knowledge for a artisan bread baker is very important to calculate measures and weights
and different timings for cooking and cooling.
 Skills that food technologists require includes written and oral communication skills,
team working abilities, ability to work independently and attention to detail and effective
numerical and analytical skills.
 Skills that they require includes creativity skills, team working, problem identification
and problem solving skills are required by food packaging research.
 Skills required for quality assurance manager includes statistical analysis skills to ensure
standard of quality are perfectly met by organisation, organisational and planning skills to
effectively plan and organise practices to meet quality standards. Technical knowledge of
bread industry and its practices is also required for quality assurance manager.
Creative and ethical leadership skills
Creative and ethical leadership skills that are required in bread industry includes-
Transformational leader- Transformational leaders are those who possess capability to
successfully transform organisation (Hamdani, 2018). These leaders have different skills and
capabilities that mainly include encouraging innovation and fostering ethical work environment
having clear values, priorities and standards in organisation.
Visionary leader- visionary leaders are those leaders who can inspire a team to strive for new
heights and also integrate organisation to take big actions forward. These leaders lead with vision
and also encourage their team to aim high.
Ethical leadership- This involves considering ethical as centre of leadership and in this
effectively leading on CSR is very important because it is central to business ethics. This means
that it is very important that leaders consider that being ethical and practicing moral values
remain at centre of their leadership. This involves considering good and fair for everyone
including employees, society. For example- poor workers in Asia and Africa are exploited by
organisations and leaders and ethical leaders consider that workers are not exploited in any form.

In addition to this it is also important that diverse workforce in organisation is treated equally
and fairly in bread industry and its organisation.
Respecting others- Respecting others and specially customers and their requirements and
desires is very important for ethical leadership. It is important to consider requirements of
customers and making decision and actions considering their well-being and profit.
Value driven decision-making- This is very important skill for an ethical leader in bread
industry. Value driven decision-making involves making decisions on the basis of certain values
on the basis of which organisations operate.
Valuing awareness- This is an important skill in which it is important that leaders value
awareness and also communicate awareness in employees and followers. This is very important
that in bread industry leaders have this skill in order to remain aware of better practices and
changing trends and laws.
Imagination- For a creative leader it is important that they have imagination skill because
imagination is very important for creativity (Liu and et.al., 2020). Creativity can help in
enhancing existing practices and in addition to this it is important for identifying and developing
solution for different problems.
Originality- Creative leadership requires that it is important that ideas of the leader are original
and this requires skill of being unique in their approach.
Listening to people- This is one of the skills that leaders should listen to what people say and
should be more adaptive and this is required for both ethical as well as creative leadership skill.
Listening to people helps leaders in widen their approach and increase span of their
considerations and will help in better decision-making.
Having code of conduct- This is also one of the important skills for ethical leadership that
leaders require to have this is because it helps in deciding criteria for decision-making
(Rachmawati and et.al., 2019). This also helps in guiding decisions of employees within
organisation.

Element 2
Digital showcase of self-reflection
Self-reflection is a practice of reflecting upon and evaluating experiences, skills and
associated feelings. This self-reflection includes writing individual experience about analysis of
industry and actions that I will take for future and career in bread industry. For the purpose of
this self-reflection Gibbs reflective cycle will be considered.
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
Description- In above section I undertook different types of research regarding bread industry.
Different online sources were researched for bread industry and this research was based on some
of the important points and factors and these factors and points included bread industry and
different types of businesses in bread industry. In addition to this competition and effect of
Brexit on bread industry was also researched. Research helped in understanding bread industry in
detail and what are different factors and trends that affect bread industry (Sekarwinahyu and
et.al., 2019). Later skills in context of direction and opportunities were also identified in context
of bread industry. Research helped in identifying what are different skills required in bread
industry. Later research and discussion regarding different skills for ethical and creative
leadership were also made.
Feelings- Research and analysis helped in identifying different aspects of bread industry and I
realised that there are several skills and competencies that I lack when I aspire to pursue career in
bread industry. This is very important to have adequate skills and knowledge before entering into
industry and especially those are important for survival in an industry context. Before making
research I did not had much knowledge of bread industry and different requirements in terms of
skills and knowledge to succeed in bread industry. This experience for me was exciting and
positive because this research helped me in identifying how I can develop me for future and
career in bread industry. After experience I was more mentally prepared for the challenges that I
might experience during career progression in bread industry. This means that this experience
gave me both positive as well as negative feelings because I got to know that it is not very easy
to succeed in bread industry. As I was equipped with better knowledge and this was the reason
for positive feelings.

Evaluation- evaluation of the feelings is about identifying the reason behind positive as well as
negative feeling that I had during and after experience (Li and et.al., 2020). The reason that I had
some negative feelings was that even when I was thinking about person my career in bread
industry I did not make any significant research and because of that I did not had adequate
knowledge about bread industry. This means that I was not aware of different types of businesses
in bread industry and how they affect each other and their impact on competition in bread
industry. Concern with positive feelings and experiences it can be considered that gaining
knowledge was something that contributed and positive experience and I was also able to work
effectively on Industrial Research. This means that when I was researching about bread industry
research went well and I found reliable sources to make Research and this way experience was
positive.
Analysis- Experience and knowledge that I gathered from research and discussion over different
areas of bread industry it was very different from what I expected before starting Research and
experience. This is because I thought that success in bread industry is not much difficult and
skills required are also less but compared to my opinion regarding bread industry there are
several skills required for success in bread industry. In addition to this when one wants to start
their career in bread industry competition industry is also very high and this kind of knowledge
affected my confidence regarding success in bread industry. In addition to this bread industry
require all kinds of skills including behavioural skills, knowledge-based skills and technical
skills (Markkanen and et.al., 2020). These are some of the factors that contributed and negative
feelings associated with the experience. However experience cannot be completely characterized
as negative but something that is not positive. Some of the factors that contributed in creating
positive feeling for the experience were that now I am more skilled and have better knowledge of
bread industry and its practices. This way I will be able to make better decisions that are more
based on proof and knowledge.
Conclusion- experience of research on bread industry and identifying different elements of
industry and skills and knowledge required for success in industry was primarily a positive and
favourable experience. However certain things created negative experience but they were linked
with assumptions and not with experience that I had during Research and discussion regarding
bread industry. Key factors that affected experience was assumptions and something that would

have changed this experience was that I was having no knowledge of bread industry and its
practices. This is why having knowledge about basics of bread and the stigma have changed my
perception and assumptions regarding bread industry and success factors. However this
experience has created very effective knowledge bases for making right and suitable decisions
for further development for succeeding in bread industry.
Action Plan- This is concerned with actions that I will undertake to develop skills and
knowledge for succeed in bread industry (E-portfolio, 2019). Action Plan that I will follow for
developing my skills and knowledge have been included in personal development plan. This
personal development plan is based on identified strengths and weaknesses and opportunities.
Element 3
Personal development plan
This is a plan that includes planning that individual undertake in order to develop and
prepare them for becoming suitable and succeed in career. This involves developing different
types of skills and knowledge required for developing for becoming successful in bread industry
(Khavarian-Garmsir, Stavros and Saraei, 2017). Personal development plan is based on SOAR
framework and this framework involves strengths, opportunities, aspiration and results. In this
strength includes elements that works as positive and contributory factors in achieving objectives
and opportunities are those factors and elements through which objectives can be achieved.
Aspirations are factors that one wants to achieve and something that individuals wants to pursue.
Strengths
Communication skills- Communication skill is
one of the skill that enables individual to
effectively communicate and express their thoughts
and opinion.
Information technology skills- This is a
technology that enables individual to effectively
work on different types of information technology
and enables to have command on different
functions and programs (Cole and Stavros, 2019).
Opportunities
Artisan bread baking- This is one of the
important opportunity based on my skills and
interest. Artisan bread bakers primarily require
being creative and hence this becomes an
opportunity.
Food technologists- This is concerned with
identifying solution to different problems that
bakeries face and working on enhancing existing
practices. This is another opportunity in bread

Information technology has become very important
part of every profession and this is why it is one of
the important strength.
Research skills- Research skill is very important
that helps in identifying and gathering information
from different sources and this is not limited to
online sources. This skill can help in collecting
information and utilising information in appropriate
manner.
Creativity- This is also a very important skill and
strength for individuals. Creativity enable have
unique ideas and solutions for problems. Creativity
also helps in developing and identifying solutions
in difficult situation.
industry.
Professional certification in baking- This is also
an opportunity through which a successful career in
bread industry can established. Food technologist is
also an opportunity and for this professional
certification can value in competency and skills of
individual.
Team-working skills- This skill developing is an
opportunity as it will enable individual to work
effectively within team. Regardless of organisation
and profession it is very important to have team-
working skills.
Statistical analysis skills- In different
opportunities that are available in bakery industry it
is an important skill and having this can increase
employability of individual in bakery industry.
Problem-solving abilities- Problems are part of
every type of job and it is important to have this
skill so that one can become more deserving for a
job and specifically that is challenging.
Aspiration
 Starting a bakery in future- This is an
aspiration to start personal bakery and
individual business
 Developing skills that I lack for success
in bread industry- Success in bakery
highly depends on having skills and
this is an aspiration to develop skills for
bread industry
 Effectively working on and following
personal development plan for
succeeding in skill development on
time
Results
 Strengths have been identified and on
the basis of certain weaknesses and
areas for development personal
development plan has been developed
(Cole, Cox and Stavros, 2019).
 Personal development plan mainly
includes developing skills and
knowledge regarding bread industry
and for the purpose of becoming able to
start own business in bread industry