Ready-2-Eat Breakfast On The Run and its "better for you"

The evolving face of retail foodservice continues pointing to the success of the grocerant niche filled with ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food.  In the NPD Group chart above you can see that breakfast sandwiches outrank coffee. That is the time that has ever happened since NPD began the tracking it in 1985.

In the case of the breakfast sandwich it is one step back and ten forward. Harry Balzer NPD’s noted researcher and international presenter said “ “The beauty of the breakfast sandwich is that you can get that 1950’s breakfast of eggs, toast, cheese and meat all in one and you can walk out the door if you want to.

One of the drives is Portability one of Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of food marketing. It is a driver because Americans are eating more breakfast meals in their cars than ever before according to Balzer, and author of the annual Eating Patterns in America.

Blazer said that “For breakfast we focus so much on coffee, which was always number one, but what has really changed in the America’s eating habits is the breakfast sandwich. When eating out, breakfast sandwiches now rank higher than coffee!”.

Here are some numbers from Balzer report “People are getting their sandwiches on the go, rather than making them at home. For the year ending November, 2012, 46 percent of all breakfasts (excludes morning snacks….just breakfast) ordered at a restaurant include a sandwich. That number includes breakfast sandwiches, 34 percent, breakfast wraps, seven percent and burgers/other sandwiches, four percent. By comparison, 42 percent of all breakfast meals ordered at restaurants include coffee. The importance of the breakfast sandwich continues to grow. It is the fastest growing item at restaurants for breakfast. In 1989, 23 percent of all breakfasts ordered from a restaurant included a breakfast sandwich (this includes traditional sandwiches ordered for breakfast). By comparison, coffee is shrinking as a share of breakfast; 51 percent of breakfasts purchased at restaurants in 1989 included coffee. 

I recommend that if you like this you should purchase a copy of the full report by contacting kim.mclynn@npd.com. If success does leave clues others edifying Foodservice Solutions findings is one of them. 

Interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant