Dominic Allport, NPD’s foodservice insights director, says breakfast QSR visits grew by 4.5% in the year ending December 2019 as against the same period in 2018. This was the fastest increase for five years and accounted for 50% of total QSR growth. In comparison, remaining daypart visits in QSR only grew by 0.6% and even the total QSR market only managed visit growth of 1.1%.
“The Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in widespread foodservice closures and travel restrictions, creating unprecedented and overwhelming business challenges for the sector,” he said.
“We know many foodservice operators are looking ahead to when the business environment changes, and we want to focus their attention on areas we believe could be set for growth.
“Breakfast is one of those and our data shows that, pre-Covid-19, more people were choosing to get their first meal or beverage of the day out of home.
“If this trend re-establishes itself, all operators can potentially benefit from this in the future. For smaller players, think about growing your local offer, and where possible, highlighting what you did during Covid-19 to help your staff and local community.
“Whatever your size, be ready to support visitors with pre-ordering and delivery and, of course, be clear on measures like social distancing, cleaning routines and offering hand-sanitizer stations in your venues.
“The future will be different for every sector and foodservice is no different. Now is the time to be planning how your offer will adapt to new times.”
NPD says growing frequency was the biggest driver of the increase in breakfast trips in 2019, driving two-thirds of additional trips in the fourth quarter of 2019. New buyers have also entered the breakfast market with close to one-quarter (23%) of the growth in breakfast trips coming from this source.
But Allport says there is still room for breakfast penetration and frequency to grow. The 61% penetration (% of British consumers aged 16 to 64 buying in YE Dec 2019) for QSR breakfast was over 20 percentage points below QSR lunch (84%) and over 10 percentage points below QSR dinner (72%).
In addition, the 10.4 frequency (average trips per buyer in YE Dec 2019) for QSR breakfast was only two-thirds of the frequency for QSR lunch (15.2)