As noted in our June 2019 SF&WB "State of the Industry: Bakery" coverage, desserts categories at retail are seeing mixed results. One bright spot was refrigerated cheesecakes, a category that grew by 4.5 percent in dollar sales to $320.5 million for the 52 weeks ending March 24, 2019, per IRI, Chicago.

Bread is the most-important category in the baking industry, but also one of the most-challenging for building appreciable growth. For the 52 weeks ending November 4, 2018, the fresh bread and rolls category grew 0.13 percent in dollar sales to $13.4 billion, per IRI, Chicago.

For a culture focused on convenience and clean-label nutrition, bars continue to deliver. Sales of snack and granola bars on the whole have grown 2.9 percent during the 52 weeks ending October 7, 2018, according to data from IRI, Chicago, hitting a value of $6.2 billion.