Bowl over your breakfast customers by providing them with the perfect balance of treat options and healthier varieties.
When it comes to the first meal of the day, tasty baked pastries are proving irresistible for many.
Breakfast is the largest meal occasion in the UK with bakery items being bought by 99.6% of households [Kantar: Total Market / Total Bakery / Ambient / 29 Sept ’24 vs PY], presenting a major opportunity for retailers, states St Pierre Groupe.
Breaking down bakery into bread, cakes and sweet treats and products for bakery occasions, including breakfast, it’s clear that most value growth in bakery is driven by bakery occasions, the only bakery segment delivering both value and volume increases, claims the firm.
Breakfast is the biggest occasion, with a 39% share of bakery occasions sales, closely followed by lunch and evening meals, which has 35% of the subsector [ibid].
“Despite continuing economic pressures, shoppers are still looking to treat themselves well for breakfast – whether at home or on the move, making premiumisation and healthy indulgence two significant trends for retailers to take account of,” says Rachel Wells, Commercial Director.
“Splitting out a reliable figure for the size of the on-the-go breakfast occasion is difficult, and on-the-go sales in individual stores depend very much on retailers’ location and demographic,” she concedes. “The home/hybrid working trend means on some days out-of-home breakfasts are an important part of the working day for millions of us, but on at-home days the same people enjoy an ‘upgraded’ menu with extended breakfasts, including St Pierre’s morning goods and brioche buns and hot dog rolls.”
St Pierre claims to be the fastest-growing bakery brand in breakfast, delivering almost 60% growth in value sales, and 80% in volume, adding 13% in value to the breakfast bakery category, despite only having a 2% share of the market (Circana IRI, Bakery to w/e 20th April 2024).
Within breakfast bakery, the £140m croissant segment is delivering the most value growth, growing at 17% year on year. St Pierre has just launched a two-pack of All Butter Croissants into 264 Morrisons Daily outlets.
The company suggests that breakfast bakery products be merchandised on the main bakery fixture, with a further selection of individually wrapped morning goods by the coffee machine.
Nutritious and delicious
At the other end of the spectrum, there is strong demand for breakfasts with high nutritional credentials. “We have seen shoppers seeking healthier breakfast options for some time now,” says Divesh Parmar, Quaker General Manager at PepsiCo, adding that oats are perceived as a nutritious breakfast option. “However, we also know that they aren’t willing to compromise on convenience or taste to achieve this – particularly with taste being the primary driver of brand choice within breakfast cereals [BOLT Data 2023 – Breakfast Occasion].”
Quaker delivers 48.2% of sales within Hot Cereals [NielsenIQ, GB Hot Cereals, Total Market, Value Sales, data 52 weeks up to 15.06.24] and aimed to drive the segment further with its recent Deliciously Ugly campaign and Oat So Simple on-pack promotion.
The brand partnered with National Trust for Scotland, giving consumers the chance to win a family day pass to a participating location. Tying into the time it takes to make a bowl of Quaker Oat So Simple porridge, the promotion saw consumers win every two minutes from 7-9am, with 2,520 passes up for grabs. Parmar says: “Ultimately, this campaign reinforces that while oats may not be the most beautiful breakfast, they are tasty, healthy, convenient and fun.”
Alpen, the UK’s number one Muesli Brand [Nielsen, Muesli Category, Volume & Value category share, 12 weeks ending 02/12/24], has also been highlighting its health and taste credentials.
Earlier this year, Alpen launched a new premium and modern brand identity, plus a new recipe with 30% more fruit – which is the number one driver of liking for Muesli lovers [Muesli Drivers of Liking Product Testing, November 2023]. The brand is now benefitting from a £2m investment across TV, video on demand and social media with a new media campaign, ‘Alpen, it’s The Grown Up Thing To Do’.
Louise Vickers, Head of Brand at Alpen, says: “This investment is a major step forward for us in reconnecting with cereal lovers across the nation who are looking for a breakfast that is nutritious but still delicious.
“Armed with new branding, new packaging and our most delicious recipe yet, we want to show shoppers that choosing a healthier, more complete breakfast option is far from boring!”
High in fibre, made with 100% natural ingredients, HFSS compliant and made with a blend of wholegrains, Alpen is backed by a revitalised message of being a tasty, but healthy choice for breakfast.
Parent company, Weetabix, has been promoting a similar message with its Crispy Minis, with a renewed emphasis on taste thanks to the recent launch of a Caramelised Biscuit variant.
As the fastest growing top 10 tasty cereal brand [Nielsen discover, L52w, total coverage, up to 15.06.2024], Weetabix Crispy Minis continues to resonate with households across the UK for its unique appeal of both great taste and nutrition. Caramelised biscuit is one of the fastest-growing flavour trends in the market, with +52% annual growth of flavour [Its Bakery Flavours Report 2023] and 71% flavour appeal [Humante 2023].
Lorraine Rothwell, Weetabix Head of Brand, says: “Both delicious and HFSS compliant, it’s perfect for those who like the sweet taste of caramel without compromising on nutrition – making it an ideal cereal choice for families across the country.”
Caramelised Biscuit is the third permanent flavour within the Crispy Minis product range, which includes Fruit & Nut and Chocolate Chip. The launch follows a recent significant milestone success for the Crispy Minis brand, which celebrated its position as a £33m brand per annum [Weetabix perf Nielsen 12 w/e 11 Nov 24] in September.
Whether it’s buttered croissants or a box of cereal, by offering a strong range of healthy and indulgent options, retailers can appeal to a wide range of consumers and bag themselves some big breakfast sales.
The ready-to-drink (RTD) chilled coffee category continues to go from strength to strength as a key breakfast choice, worth more than £323m and growing in value and volume in GB [Nielsen Total Cov Val and Vol MAT w/e 28.12.2024]. At the end of 2024, more than a quarter of UK households were purchasing RTD coffee [Kantar Combined Panel 52 w/e 29.12.2024].
Costa accounted for 7.5% of the entire RTD coffee category growth in the last quarter of 2024 [Nielsen Grocery Mults L12w until 28/12/2024]. This is thanks to the brand offering a versatile range of drinks to suit different consumer needs all year round, most notably the breakfast occasion.
Value remains a lead motivation for shoppers in convenience [Lumina Intelligence Convenience Tracking Programme, data collected 13WE 17/10/21, 13WE 16/10/22 and 13WE 15/10/23], followed by the demand for quality and brands [ibid].
Kate Abbotson, Senior Trade Communications Manager at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners says: “Wholesalers and retailers can meet these shopper needs by stocking market-leading brands in a variety of price-marked pack (PMP) formats – including on-the-go and multipacks – to cater to multiple breakfast occasions, offering a point of difference that consumers can’t get in larger stores. Our range of PMP packs includes Costa Coffee Latte and Caramel Latte RTD.
