With eating breakfast on-the-go levelling off in the face of recession, retailers are once again having to adapt their offering to ensure they can capture breakfast custom, wherever it’s being eaten.
by Kevin Scott
Over the last few years there has been a huge shift in the breakfast market, with busy consumers eating breakfast on the move, or skipping it all together. A new term, ‘deskfast’ was engineered to describe those who ate breakfast at work. Retailers and manufacturers changed their offering accordingly. However, in the last year, a return to recession has led to a rise in people eating at home before leaving the house, in order to save money. Retailers, therefore, need to ensure their offering covers both.
There are a number of categories that are touched by breakfast shoppers too – from dairy, to cereals, bakery and fresh, so retailers need to ensure they are well-placed to make the most of the opportunity.
The UK breakfast market is currently worth £7.3bn having grown 4% since 2007 and one of the best places to start when discussing the first meal of the day is in bakery – after all, toast remains one of the simplest and most popular breakfast options out there. In fact, 35% of all bread consumption happens at breakfast. Furthermore, TNS data shows that toast and a cup of tea is the most regularly consumed breakfast choice in the UK, coming in third as most popular breakfast item behind only fruit juice and fruit.
It goes without saying then, that bread is one of the key categories in a convenience shop and is bought on distress as well as a regular shop, therefore retailers must ensure they have bread stocked all day long – running out at 7pm is not a good thing, despite what some retailers think.
Guy Shepherd, Category Director, Allied Bakeries, says: “With bakery an essential part of breakfast and bread shoppers generating 80% more turnover than the average shopper, stocking a broad range of bakery items is therefore vital for growing sales – providing an opportunity for both manufacturers and retailers to capitalise on the booming breakfast occasion.”
When asked about current trends in the market, Shepherd is quick to highlight breakfast on the go, and “deskfast” as two trends that have “transformed the breakfast market”. he says: “Research has indicated that the average person has only 20 minutes to get ready in the morning, leaving little time to dedicate to the meal occasion. With this change in behaviour impacting on consumption – retailers should be sure to stock a range of ‘quick treats’ such as bakery favourites. Indeed, sales of bakery favourites have leapt by 10.5% in value demonstrating their value to the modern consumer – with both Kingsmill Pancakes and Kingsmill Muffins currently the performing well in impulse.
So, on top of the usual array of bread products, retailers should ensure they cover bakery options that will appeal to this customer base. Among recent Kingsmill launches in this area is a new Fruit & Fibre range, consisting of Fruit & Fibre bread, Fruit & Fibre muffins and Fruit & Fibre bagels, which were developed with over 1,000 consumers, who shared their feedback at all stages of development from concept to final product.
In terms of category management in this area, retailers in Scotland should be aware that bakery items such as brioche (+125%), fruit bread (+28%) and waffles (+21%) are all currently growing in popularity.
This is a sector where Warburtons is also strengthening its range. Its new Brioche range continues to uphold all of Warburtons usual credentials whilst adding another option for consumer enjoyment both during Breakfast, Snacking and Lunch occasions. The products are individually wrapped making them a convenient on-the-go option and are available in rolls and swirls: Brioche Choc Chip Rolls, Brioche Plain Rolls, Brioche Raisin Swirls, Brioche Plain Swirls. Enjoyment and variety is a key driver at Breakfast says Martin Baptie, Warburtons Category Strategy Controller. “We have seen the Treat Breakfast sector, including products such as Brioche, Croissants and Waffles, growing year on year (worth £165m), with annualised growth of over +12% in value terms and +14% in units. It is now overtaking Traditional Breakfast in value terms (worth £162m).
Beyond new trends, Warburtons is another bakery firm that works closely with retailers. An important focus is placed on helping retailers address the different Shopper Missions that their customers are likely to be on. When it comes to Bakery, Warburtons works with its customers to help them understand that a good convenience Bread and Bakery fixture should contain the following:
- The essential products to cater for the vast majority of shopper missions including Planned Top Up, Distress Top Up, Meal for Tonight and Food To Go
- We know that 40% of sales are Planned Top Up Missions and 21% are Distress Top Up Missions where the key for shoppers is replenishing their cupboard, so having a core and consistent range of Wrapped Bread products in particular is key to meet this need
- If fixture space is limited, retailers need to use this space to meet the immediate needs of their shoppers. Bread makes up 80% of Bakery sales within small stores, which is reflected in Warburtons core range for smaller stores below which focuses on the key Bread
- Top up occurs throughout the day so shelves need to be re-stocked regularly as shoppers will expect their usual purchases to be available
- When shopping on Planned Top Up and other missions, shoppers tend to have a longer dwell time than when they are making Distress purchases and are therefore more open to trying new products outside of their core purchases. Capitalising on these missions by encouraging impulse purchase is a key opportunity for small store retailers
- Therefore, where more space is available, the range is adjusted to include products such as Brioche in order to capitalise on growing consumer trends and encourage incremental sales among shoppers.
To push this bakery offer even further more retailers are offering bake-off products. There are a number of companies offering products in this area, and one of these is Lantmännen Unibake UK. Its Bakehouse Viennoiserie is a perfect fit and is also one of the strongest segments in sweet ISB (In-Store Bakery). Claire Warren, Senior Marketing Manager says: “In Scotland, we are seeing retail sales of ISB Viennoiserie growing at 7.6% YOY. Single-serve Viennoiserie products are ideal for consumers on the go and also make a great accompaniment to a takeaway coffee or tea.”
According to Warren, whilst health considerations certainly remain on the consumer agenda, they appear to be becoming slightly less relevant to consumers as indulgence overtakes as a purchase driver for consumers. “In our recent survey, 43% of UK respondents say that the taste of the products is more important than health,” she says
Its Bakehouse Viennoiserie range is ideally suited to the breakfast occasion and offers best-sellers such as the All Butter Croissant, Pain au Chocolat, Pain Raisin, Almond Croissant and Chocolate Croissant. In particular, croissants are the best-selling in-store bakery product at breakfast time with 60% of all croissants consumed at this meal occasion. The products are very simple to prepare, taking only 18-20 minutes to bake off from frozen, and therefore enable retailers to provide warm, freshly-baked breakfast Viennoiserie early in the morning as part of the ISB experience.
Spread your sales
Now, anyone making toast, or heating up croissants or anything of that nature, needs something to put on their chosen product. This too provides retailers with an extended opportunity. Why not ensure POS in the bakery section reminds customers to pick up butter or jams – siting jams and preserves next to the bakery section is another way to boost sales in this area.
Traditional sectors of the spreads market such as jam and marmalade may be in a slight decline, but chocolate & hazelnut spreads and peanut butter continue to attract new purchasers.
Nutella is the UK’s leading spread SKU having recently overtaken Marmite, and is currently experiencing strong year on year growth, remaining a best seller all year round.
The company’s ‘Wake up to Nutella’ campaign has successfully connected with mums and by continuing to reinforce the message that Nutella is not a chocolate but a hazelnut spread with real benefits at breakfast, we can become the No.1 choice for parents and further accelerate category growth.
Retailers can capture cross category breakfast sales and drive trial by siting convenient Nutella 15g clipstrips in both the bread and cereal aisles.
In the BSM category over the last couple of years there has been a rise in consumers moving towards more natural products. This coincides with the decline of consumer purchasing decision made purely based on health, as seen by the decline of the Low Fat sector.
This trend is highlighted by the fact that the Block Butter and Spreadables sectors – now represent over half the total BSM category value.
Stuart Ibberson, Business Unit Director at Arla Foods, comments: “Health still remains a key trend having been prevalent in the BSM category over the past few years but we have found that now consumers are increasingly following an ‘everything in moderation’ approach and are taking a more holistic view on health. Consumers are no longer just looking at the saturated fat or calorie content of products anymore, but are instead weighing up all the pros and cons.”
In response to this growing trend, Lurpak launched its lowest fat spreadable, made with real butter, Lurpak Lightest Spreadable at the beginning of the year, and products like this will continue to be in demand.
Causing a stir
That other breakfast staple is of course cereal – a category in which we will include porridge. Scots excel at porridge and one of our own is Hamlyns.
Hamlyns of Scotland is gearing up for a busy winter, planning a variety of trade and consumer promotions to give the brand a high profile over the crucial winter months.
‘One third extra free’ flash packs of 750g Hamlyns Scottish Porridge Oats and 1kg Hamlyns Scottish Oatmeal will be available across all trade sectors for promotional slots throughout the winter months.
The company has confirmed details of two consumer promotions for key target markets. The first promotion with Scottish Slimmers will involve every Scottish Slimmers member receiving a sample of Hamlyns Scottish Porridge Oats when they visit a class this month. The sampling is supported by advertising and recipe features in Scottish Slimmers’ publications during the early part of 2013.
Hamlyns has also just agreed a new partnership with The Scots Magazine, including sampling at the Over 50’s Show in Glasgow, consumer features, advertising and social media activity.
Another major porridge manufacturer is pepsico with its Quaker and Scott’s brands.
Quaker is a brand the company has developed substantially in recent years, and the inclusion of the Oat So Simple in 2011 to give consumers greater ease when there’s little time to prepare breakfast revolutionised the market.
Since launch the range has delivered a strong boost to the porridge category – with increased demand resulting in 10% growth from February 2011 to the end of that year. In total, Quaker Oats sold over 5.7 million Oats So Simple pots in the first year alone, helping it become the fastest growing brand in the top 10 cereals in the UK and worth an estimated £80m.
What’s more, just last month Quaker Oats was awarded the Nestlé Wellness Award at the IGD Food Industry Awards – an annual event that celebrates the best achievements of the UK food and grocery industry. The Award was given in recognition of the impact that Quaker Oats has had in promoting healthy eating in the UK with its Oat So Simple pots.
Oat So Simple Pots are now benefitting from a refreshed pack design to create stand out on shelf, which is set to drive further growth for the brand, while the wider Quaker OSS range will be supported throughout the hots season, with an engaging TV campaign which kicks off in this month and runs until April 2013.
Cindy Tervoort, Marketing Director, Quaker Oats says: “We are delighted that the IGD has recognised the impact that our Oat So Simple pots have had on helping Britons to eat a healthier breakfast. The range has proven particularly popular with younger consumers, combining the quick and simple format with the wide range of flavours to bring the goodness of oats to the next generation of consumers.”
