Premier Foods plc is aiming for its Hovis Hearty Oats bread line to be the biggest FMCG launch in the UK this year, the company said today (16 April).

The UK’s largest food maker has launched Hovis Hearty Oats to convince consumers that bread can be a healthy option for breakfast and the group wants the line to be the best-selling new product launched in the country this year.

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Hovis marketing director Jon Goldstone said he wanted the new product to match the success of Coke Zero, Walkers SunBites and Stella Artois 4, which have all been the top-selling launch in the UK in recent years.

Goldstone, who worked on the 2008 launch of Sun Bites in his stint at PepsiCo, said: “Our ambition is to be one of the biggest – if not the biggest – launch in 2010 in FMCG.”

Premier is spending some GBP5m on launching Hovis Hearty Oats, including GBP3m on a TV push starting in June, and is targeting sales of GBP30m in the first 12 months the product is on sale, Goldstone said.

Hovis Hearty Oats, which gained its first significant listing at Asda this week, contains beta-glucan, an ingredient that, if consumed regularly can help to “maintain normal cholesterol levels”, Premier said. The bread is also baked with 50% oats and 50% wheatflour, a market first, Goldstone added.

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He insisted that consumer demand for breads marketed as healthier had returned to the levels seen before the downturn struck in late 2008 after a brief hike in sales for white bread as the recession led shoppers to take home-made sandwiches to work.

“As we moved through last year, people got bored of making their own sandwiches and it’s been white bread that has taken a hit,” Goldstone said. “It’s the healthy stuff that’s in growth.”

Health-related segments are gaining traction in the UK bread category, including the gluten-free sector, where Finsbury Food Group is rolling out its Genius brand across UK retailers.

Goldstone insisted such brands remained a small part of the overall market but admitted Premier was eyeing the niche categories with interest.

“If it gets to a point of scale where it makes commercial sense for us, we would think about entering [the gluten-free] category,” he said.