Breakfast: The early morning rush in stores

There’s no doubt that breakfast is a growing ‘occasion’ for convenience retailers. Lunch may be bigger, but with new products and formats to start the day being launched non-stop, breakfast sales are booming.

That’s certainly true for Scott Graham, who owns McLeish in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.

“Breakfast is not as big as lunch yet, but more products are becoming available for breakfast on the hoof, so it’s growing. We’ve noticed sales growing, particularly in the past six months,” he says. “We’ve always been very busy, but we’ve become a destination store for hot food and that definitely includes breakfast.”

And shoppers looking for breakfast are very well catered for, with everything from hot bacon rolls to cereal pots available.

“Between 6am and 8am we have between 90 and 100 customers an hour,” says Scott. “Breakfast trade on Monday starts later - say 7am, but Wednesday to Friday it starts at 6am.”

He says bacon rolls are most popular with the tradesmen, while porridge pots appeal more to office workers.

“Particularly popular is our deal of a bacon roll, hot drink and a newspaper for £3 - it’s a 40p paper, not a more expensive broadsheet. And we’re working on a deal to link a cereal bar with a coffee.

“Cereal pots and, in particular, porridge pots are selling well. We merchandise them in the food to go area. People can add water to their porridge pots from the coffee machine, plus we’ve a big Kelloggs breakfast stand.”

Scott also stocks the Stoats porridge range, which he says sells really well, even when it’s not on promotion.

According to Stoats managing director Tony Stones, the porridge pots are made with the best Scottish oats, 100% natural ingredients and more than 10% fruit. “In the convenience store environment the colourful packaging jumps off the shelf,” he says. Stone says the best-seller is classic Scottish, followed by apple & cinnamon and cranberry & blueberry.

“As consumers are more and more pressed for time, they are searching for more convenient breakfast options that they can eat while on the go or at the desk. By choosing Stoats retailers can command a premium price (rrp £1.19) for a premium brand and product, with a solid margin that delivers the consumer a tasty breakfast solution.”

Fine food wholesaler Cotswold Fayre reports increased sales for both Stoats porridge oat bars and Stoats porridge pots.

Managing director Paul Hargreaves says bars and cereals containing oats, fruits and slow-release energy grains are popular, such as the organic Beond Bars range. “Gluten-free products continue to be popular; things like Rude Health’s gluten-free beetroot snack bar and pumpkin snack bar. The inclusion of mixed and exotic berries in these items is also fast becoming a trend, with products such as Rude Health strawberry & raspberry granola and fruity date porridge continuing to sell well.”

At Dean Holborn’s two stores in Surrey you’ll find the more traditional Quaker alongside a porridge pot brand called Wolfys, which he discovered at a trade show. Flavours in this range are a bit more on the exotic side and include coconut porridge with lime marmalade and spiced porridge with pear & ginger. Just as in Scott’s store, consumers can add water from the hot drinks machine.

Matt Goddard, head of impulse field sales at PepsiCo, which owns the Quaker brand, says the pots format has delivered 37% of hot cereals growth in the past three years (Nielsen) and has attracted younger, more affluent consumers to the category (Kantar).

“Breakfast on the go represents a significant sales opportunity for retailers, with 104.7 million out-of-home breakfast occasions (Kantar data). HIM Research shows that 24% of UK adults buy breakfast to go at least once a week, with shoppers picking up two to three items on average. Products that are quick and easy to prepare are among the top four motivations for breakfast choice, making it important for retailers to maximise this sales opportunity by focusing on the right range of convenient products.”

When it comes to boxes of cereals for at-home consumption, Scott says he doesn’t have a huge selection and allocates around half a metre. But he has noticed much more promotional activity. “Suppliers have been a lot more proactive on promotions, led - I think - by our wholesaler Filshill. We get ‘two for a price’ offers and most packs are pricemarked. Most of our range is Kelloggs.”

Scott has cut back on cereal bars. “We used to carry loads, but now we’ve just one metre. We could do with more help on merchandising items such as cereal bars because there are hundreds of them out there, but it’s difficult to find out what sells best so we can make sure we’re carrying them. There are plenty of planograms for soups, but none for cereal bars.”

Where cereal bar sales may have dwindled, breakfast biscuit sales are on the up: “Belvita and Weetabix biscuits are selling well - I think that’s because there’s a perception that they’re healthier than other biscuits,” says Scott.

For Dean, much of the breakfast boom is coming from pastries. “Lots of mums come in after they’ve dropped the kids off at school to grab a croissant - particularly in our Nutfield store, which is opposite a primary school.”

He describes the food-to-go offer there as ‘embarrassing’ when he took the store over nine years ago, but he soon turned it around. “We developed it on the basis that it would give us a point of difference and we wanted to do it before our competition did it. Then we thought, we must get it in our Redhill store, too.”

Both stores open at 6am, but there are staff in way before then to sort the newspapers. “They get the papers in, then put some pastries in the oven to get them going. Of course, it would be lovely to have someone dedicated to doing the hot food, but it’s easy for them to do it in between the other jobs.”

Starting early is important, says Dean: “People soon get to know that you’re open early and that you’ll have hot food for breakfast,” he says.

Country Choice senior marketing manager Rebecca Whitmore agrees. “If a store can capture trade during the early morning it is likely that it will quickly establish a reputation locally and this will lead to it becoming a destination at other times during the course of the day.”

She suggests retailers start with a breakfast programme that includes something for everyone - a cooked breakfast, breakfast baps, sausage rolls and bacon & cheese turnovers for male consumers, and a selection of Viennoiserie such as croissants and Danishes which are more popular with female customers. Wherever possible, offer good quality coffee as well, and tie the two together with an attractive breakfast meal deal proposition.”

Sivakumar Pandian, manager of Nisa at Virginia Quay in East London, says that trading opposite a tube station means he gets a lot of commuters coming in to grab coffee and a pastry to consume on their way to work. “Since bringing in the Cuisine de France concept we have seen increased demand for our breakfast items, with the croissant proving to be a best-seller. The fact that the products are baked in-store also gives added appeal.”

Mariam French, head of marketing at Aryzta Food Solution (owner of Cuisine de France), reckons the importance of on-the-go pastry options mustn’t be overlooked. “Consumer research in the US has shown that 35% of people who eat breakfast on the move would like the option to purchase breakfast items at different times throughout the day, including during lunch, dinner and late at night - a trend that we expect will grow in the UK.”

Dean says if you’re offering hot food, you have to be prep ared for some waste. “I think Country Choice say you should be running at about 7% waste otherwise you could be missing out on sales due to lack of availability. After all, if there’s not much on show it’s not appealing enough for anyone to buy. It’s got to look good, then you sell more. It’s all about how you manage it.”

For Scott, breakfast trade is a lot less brisk at the weekends because of fewer workmen around, but for Dean weekends are big for cooked breakfasts. “It’s critical that we have everything customers need for a cooked breakfast: the eggs, bacon, and mushrooms.”

When C-Store speaks to Dean, it’s a Monday morning and he says he can see his stock of bacon is severely depleted at his Redhill store. He says it’s important to have a range of bacon and sausages - from value lines to more premium products to suit all pockets. “The same with bread; you need the bog standard, but you also need decent bread. We carry Country Choice’s organic loaf plus we get deliveries from an artisan baker.”

He adds that sales of croissants spike at the weekend, too. “You see a lot of dads coming in with their children, buying newspapers and croissants for breakfast.”

Dean has nothing but praise for his croissant supplier Country Choice: “They are very, very helpful. They offer a superb service where you can phone up on Sunday morning, between 10am and 1pm, and order stuff for Monday. Normally you are ordering Friday for Monday, but if you’ve had a particularly busy weekend you can ring on a Sunday and top up your order, otherwise you’d have to wait until Tuesday. They’re only open a few hours, but it’s great that they’re there.”

While busy consumers go for porridge pots on weekdays, Hargreaves says there appears to be an increase in porridge making at the weekends, with families looking to indulge. “This trend has encouraged the increase in sales of Stoats porridge oat blends and Rude Health’s 5grain 5seed porridge. Pancake and waffle making is also popular with families as a weekend treat with Stonewall Kitchen’s farmhouse pancake & waffle mix becoming a best-seller in the convenience store sector.

“Pancakes are never served alone and so Stonewall maple syrup and blueberry syrup and Sweet Freedom choc shot are must-stock items,” he adds.