COVID-19 pandemic
The 2020 rebranding change coincidentally was launched several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, when retail flour sales had exploded.[14] Before the pandemic, the company's rebranding studies had found that many of their customers engaged in stress baking, meaning that they baked at home to bring joy to themselves and others during stressful times.[16]
The company's flour sales in March 2020 were approximately twenty times what the previous year's sales had been, and industry-wide, sales of flour, yeast, and many other baking supplies in the US had doubled or tripled – the re-branding happened during a time of significant and unexpected sales growth.[17]
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sudden leap in the company's business as newly-homebound workers across the country developed hobbies they hadn't previously had the time at home to indulge, such as bread baking. The increase in home baking also was associated with retail bakery closings due to the pandemic, which meant those bakeries' customers couldn't access their bread providers. The month of March is typically a slow time for the company, which experiences a rise in sales for the winter holidays and then another one for the Easter season. From the week of March 16, both consumer and grocery store orders increased over the previous year and calls to the company's baking advice line spiked unusually. Unlike the COVID-19 shortages caused by hoarding, such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer, people were actually buying flour, using it, and wanting to buy more.[18] The shortages weren't due to a shortage of wheat or milling capacity but to bagging capacity for 5-pound bags of flour; in response the company developed a 3-pound bag.[18]
In the spring of 2020, their webpages covering sourdough bread saw an increase in traffic due to the number of people baking during the pandemic.[17] Calls to the company's advice line spiked, requiring them to increase the size of that team.[18] The company created additional recipes and baking tutorials online and launched several bake along show series, including The Isolation Baking Show, which featured Hamelman and Gesine Bullock-Prado baking together but socially distanced, Martin Bakes at Home, featuring one of the company's professional bakers demonstrating artisan-style baking with typical home-kitchen equipment and ingredients, and Baking with Kids, which featured instructors baking at home with their own children.[17]
