King Arthur Baking’s Flour Sales Have Risen by 58%

In 2020, the company sold over 156 million pounds of flour — a 58% increase over 2019, according to Yahoo Finance. “Many months ago, we were seeing three times the volume that we would typically see,” stated King Arthur Baking Company’s co-CEO Karen Colberg. While things have slowed a bit from the torrid pace of demand at the height of the pandemic, Colberg said “we are still seeing baking at levels of about 25% to 30% over the prior year, and we are excited for what it means for our future.”

Bread baking emerged the big winner during quarantine — especially sourdough bread. It was the number one recipe on the King Arthur Baking Company’s website, where searches for sourdough recipes shot up 460%. The top searches on the company’s website were pizza, banana bread and cookies, according to Colberg.

She admits “we disappointed a lot of customers early on in the pandemic in terms of not being able to be in stock, both in our direct-to-consumer business, as well as the grocery store shelf.” But she says supply finally caught up with demand around the holidays and continues to be strong.

The pandemic delayed some new product innovations which finally hit store shelves late last year including healthier options like keto flour and a baking sugar alternative that is zero calories and zero carbs. “We’re really seeing them take off in the first couple of months of this year,” said Colberg. She also predicts sales will remain 20% – 30% above pre-COVID 19 levels.