Getting it right includes getting it right first thing in the morning, and for retailers that means ensuring they can meet the demand for hot and cold breakfasts, both for take home and immediate consumption.
Despite consumers leading increasingly busy lives, many still perceive breakfast to be the most important meal of the day – it’s also a great family occasion with almost nine out of 10 people eating breakfast as a family at the weekends, and over half during the week. Even with these numbers however, breakfast on the go continues to be a huge sales driver in convenience stores.
Crucially bakery is one of the most commonly purchased items in convenience stores with bakery shoppers spending 41% more in-store, than the average shopper, so getting the range and bakery layout right can help drive overall basket spend across the store – particularly in the morning. The right core range and use of planograms also helps drive product availability, which bakery shoppers now cite as the number one driver of convenience store choice so can also drive footfall and loyalty.
Toast remains the cornerstone of many breakfasts, especially for those looking for value for money – with toast featuring in over half of all of the nation’s morning meal. Kingsmill offers a number of options for great toast, from its Soft White to Tasty Wholemeal and its market leading Kingsmill 50/50.
Warburtons’ message is the same. It reports that 46% of its products consumed before noon. The baker also says that wrapped bakery is the number one reason consumers visit convenience stores before 9am each morning, which makes the breakfast occasion a crucial footfall driver for convenience stores.
Megan Harrison, Brand & Portfolio Director, Warburtons says that while toast is a firm morning fixture, breakfast isn’t just about toasting bread. “Warburtons Crumpets are the number one traditional breakfast SKU across the country, selling more than 48 million units in the last year.”
Muffins and Pancakes are also available from Warburtons.
Furthermore, the famous wax-wrapped loaf, Warburtons Toastie, is the number one selling wrapped bakery product in the UK with over 92 million units sold in the last 12 months. Warburtons also sells Muffins and Pancakes.
“Innovation is a key part of our business and we committed to creating new ideas and products,” adds Harrison. “Warburtons is passionate about creating excitement in convenience stores. Our innovations team continually travel the world for bakery inspiration. Warburtons has a number of new NPDs in the pipeline, but they are currently under wraps – all we can say at this stage is watch this space.”
Over the last 12 months the company has invested £20m in building brand awareness and driving trial through all of our consumer touch points to ensure we drive sales for all of our customers.
Martin Garlick, Category Director, Allied Bakeries, agrees: “Bakery at breakfast continues to play a central role and so we recommend retailers stock key bakery products.” He argues that as consumer shopping habits are changing to ‘little and often’, convenience stores are best poised to maximise breakfast sales opportunities by stocking and showcasing bakery favourites such as crumpets, muffins and pancakes, all of which are available from Kingsmill. “At breakfast consumers love a slice of toast, but families also like to seek out alternatives, such as crumpets, pancakes, muffins and waffles,” says Garlick. “Products such as Kingsmill Pancakes and Waffles are often purchased on impulse or as a weekend treat. Retailers should stock these products alongside sliced bread as they are often purchased in addition to the consumer’s usual loaf, making them a great way to drive additional sales.”
Effective merchandising and how you organise your bakery offering is important too as it can influence purchasing decisions. “Whether you have a three-metre or a two-metre fixture, we suggest retailers follow recommended ‘planograms’ for their bakery fixture to maximise sales and availability and minimise waste,” says Garlick.
He claims that only one in three of symbol group stores are implementing planograms, meaning many retailers could be missing out on sales.
Sweet start to the day
For consumers who want to sweeten their morning brew 
but also have an eye on their calorie consumption Splenda sugar alternative provides a solution which tastes like sugar but with fewer calories. Splenda is worth over £7m. Splenda Granular 75g is an ideal pack for customers taking breakfast at home as it can be used in hot drinks and in porridge whilst the Splenda Sweet Mini’s 100 provide a handy sized pack to keep close at hand.
Toast is only one breakfast solution of course, and with winter biting, the demand for hot cereals is at its peak around this time of year and retailers can increase sales by ensuring demand is met.
Helping increase shelf stand out is Hamlyns of Scotland, which is launching a new range of packaging for its traditional range this winter, in line with the design developed for its instant pots and sachets, launched last year.
Hamlyns traditional range of Scottish Oatmeal, Scottish Porridge Oats, and Scottish Porridge Oats and Bran, will be presented in block bottom packs, which will include see through sides, so that consumers can clearly see the quality Scottish oats inside. The new packaging will be introduced gradually over the next few months, and is expected to be in most retailers by Easter.
At the same time, Hamlyns is currently ramping up marketing and promotional activity in support of its convenient Scottish Porridge Sachets and Porridge Pots, to ensure maximum sales and distribution throughout the crucial winter period.
Both new ranges are available in three varieties: Original, Golden Syrup and Mixed Berry. Initial sales since the launch this spring have been very encouraging, and are expected to shoot up over the winter months, due both to seasonal demand and heightened awareness resulting from new trade and consumer promotions.
The company is making a significant investment in a wide range of tailor-made promotions for retailers, wholesalers and cash and carry customers.
The Hamlyns Porridge Pot Man is available for promotions by appointment, and new floor standing display units, are available for independent retailers who carry the full product range.
A mission for breakfast
Traditional hot breakfast products such as sausage, eggs and bacon remain firm staples in convenience, particularly among stores who have joined forces with local butchers and bakers to provide locally sourced products.
To boost sales, look at creating a mission section for breakfast products. Located between a chiller and an ambient shelf, it could include the likes of bacon and sausages, along with morning rolls and condiments such as Heinz Tomato Ketchup and HP Sauce.
HP sauce, which was acquired by Heinz in 2005, has its highest consumption at Breakfast due to the host food it targets such as bacon. 42% of HP consumption occurs at the weekend, where the breakfast occasion is more prominent, so retailers should stock up.
Consumer marketing over the winter and spring will result in tens of thousands of samples being distributed to consumers over the first half of the year. Promotions include sampling and couponing with many of Scotland’s leading daily and weekly newspapers, consumer competitions, and extensive sampling in Scottish Slimmers’ classes during February.
Hamlyns’ Managing Director, Alan Meikle says: “The re-design on our traditional ranges, in line with our new products, will ensure further success for these ranges, and the block bottom packaging will make merchandising much easier for the retailer, and make much better use of the allocated shelf space.”
John Kerr of The JFK Partnership, who is responsible for Hamlyns’ sales said: “Everyone knows that eating porridge for breakfast is one of the best ways to start the day, especially in the winter months. With our new convenient products complementing our traditional range of Hamlyns Scottish Porridge Oats and Hamlyns Scottish Oatmeal, we now offer porridge to suit all lifestyles, and our range of promotions available to retailers and consumers should ensure that this is our best ever winter.”
For those who would perhaps skip breakfast entirely due to time constraints, the breakfast biscuit category has become something of a saving grace. Since its launch, belvita Breakfast has seen huge success with six million buyers in the UK with a high repeat rate of 59%.
Susan Nash, Trade Communications Manager at Mondelez International, says: “We believe that we are very much at the forefront of the market when it comes to developing fantastic products that customers love. The breakfast biscuit category is relatively new, with fantastic scope for development, and we’re looking forward to growing the category into 2015.”
Belvita Breakfast are available in single 50g portion packs, in two variants: Belvita Strawberry Duo Crunch and belVita Honey & Nut. These portion packs are ideal for breakfast on the move, providing a more enticing offer for small store shoppers .
In a further innovation in 2013, Belvita Breakfast launched an exclusive format for the convenience channel, with a 150g pack aimed at top-up shoppers.
Available in Milk & Cereals and Honey & Nut flavours, these boxes contain three 50g packs of delicious crunchy breakfast biscuits, making them ideal for customers who want to pick up a little extra to help them through the week.
Baking breakfast
The fact that 20% of consumers are choosing to eat breakfast on the go two to three times a week demonstrates the significant opportunity available for convenience retailers looking to maximise this growing trend for food on the move, particularly for in-store bakery.
Mariam French, Head of Marketing UK at Aryzta Food Solutions, comments: “The importance of on-the-go pastry options in-store cannot 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 follow in the UK.”
Food-to-go offers a massive opportunity for retailers, says French with Mintel research showing that the food-to-go shopper spends 25% more than the average convenience shopper, while 90% of shoppers under the age of 45 also have lunch to go at least once a week.
In terms of breakfast products, French recommends the core Cuisine de France pastry products, including Croissant, Pain au Chocolat, Almond Croissant, Chocolate Croissant, Pain aux Raisin, Maple Pecan Plait and Royal Danish, with recommended rrps of between 80p and 95p.
By stocking a good range of breakfast pastries from Cuisine de France, retailers can expect an average POR of 40%.
The company offers a number of Cuisine de France solutions. “Our concepts can be tailored to suit the needs of each individual store, and we have a wide range of products to appeal to a broad spectrum of shoppers dependent on the customer demographic,” says French.
Last year Cuisine de France launched concept units, with the aim of reinventing the in-store bakery experience for shoppers with a range of rustic looking fixtures, full point of sale packages, planograms and full training programmes delivered in-store.
