It was voted the best advertisement of all time two years ago and directed by Sir Ridley Scott, the man who went on to fame and fortune with Alien and Blade Runner in Hollywood.

Now Premier Foods wants to hark back to the success of the classic Hovis "Bike Ride" advert of 1973, in which a small boy pushed a bike laden with bread up a cobbled street, as it puts together a new TV campaign intended to arrest the continuing slide in the brand's market share.

Warburtons strengthened its hold last year as the best-selling bread in the UK. Last summer Hovis's market share was down 3.2 per cent year-on-year at 24.5 per cent, with Warburtons up at 30.8 per cent.

The gap widened before Christmas when Hovis was forced to increase its prices ten weeks before its rivals.

Robert Schofield, the Premier Foods chief executive, acknowledged yesterday that Hovis had not been competing well enough, particularly in white bread. He is putting his hopes for a recovery in more “emotional” advertising and new recipes introduced across the Hovis range.

Ironically, this would have pushed up costs even before taking the recent rampant food price inflation into account.

Mr Schofield said: “We feel confident that, over time, we will be able to rebuild our market share to levels seen in previous years.”

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