Rise and shine!

Understanding what a consumer wants in the morning can set a healthy business precedent – and the breakfast market is very much on the move.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for so many reasons – but for the sandwich and food to go (FTG) sectors, it carries extra weight. With such a variety of hybrid modern working habits involving the office at home, coupled with travelling and commuting and ever-changing hours, morning trends and evolving tastes are key indicators of potential success or failure for the foodservice industry. And revealing statistics indicate interesting patterns of behaviour.

Lumina Intelligence tells us that consumers travelling or commuting motivate the highest proportion of breakfast to go missions, with the largest growth year on year – up to 20.8% in December 2022 from 19% in December 2021. Meanwhile, FTG breakfast missions as part of a routine dropped quite dramatically, to 11.2% from 13.4%. Obviously, the world has changed so irrevocably post-pandemic, the idea of a ‘routine’ breakfast is in decline. Operators are advised to target key travel hubs, while ensuring that service times are fast and efficient.

Promotions are also driving consumer choice. Coffee is consumed in six out of 10 breakfast drink occasions (Lumina), highlighting the importance of breakfast meal deals – with bakers the most important sub-channel for breakfast to go. Tesco now has all-day breakfast sandwiches, including a meat-free option, tapping into low-cost options and catering to multiple dietary types.

Acting On Impulse

Whether consumers are dining in or on the move, 51% of adults reported that they ate breakfast out of home (OOH) in early 2022 (Mintel UK Breakfast Eating Habits market report 2022) – this number is expected to rise as people return to workplaces.