How You Can Make the Most of the Breakfast Revolution

Why is breakfast so important?

The breakfast market is growing. The importance of breakfast is becoming more and more apparent to customers of all ages, and with this comes new wants and needs. The Full English has always been the first and obvious choice for a hot breakfast, but with people becoming busier, the time available to eat breakfast is shrinking. This has created a demand for quick, on-the-go type breakfasts and snacks; such as baps, protein bars and smoothies.

Ensuring your menu caters for the right customers from the moment you open to the moment you close will help you bring in sales at all times of the day. So who is the right customer?

Where is the breakfast market?

The fastest growing and most profitable market is made up of consumers that fall within the Gen Z (those born after 1995) and Millennial (those born between 1977 and 1994) brackets. Today, these two groups spend more on a healthier breakfast than generations before them. And with a combined population of over 25.5million in the UK, the market for healthy options is massive. And growing.

There are a large variety of options available to you when it comes to designing a health-orientated breakfast menu. Eggs, oats, fruits and more, it’s easy to create delicious, enticing and healthy breakfasts.

Wholegrain

Adding a wholegrain option to your menu is a great way to entice customers who need a jump-start in the morning. Creating a take-away breakfast that incorporates the benefits of wholegrain without being bland is easier than you think. Just add oats, yoghurt and fruit together in a plastic take-away pot and you’ve got a new healthy and fulfilling breakfast option.

TIP: Wholegrain breakfasts are the most popular choice during the week in the UK.

Protein

Eggs are a great source of protein, as well as being quick and easy to prepare in a variety of different ways. Incorporating eggs, milk, cheese or yoghurt into your breakfast menu will help you cater to customers who need a boost of protein before a busy day. You can also make your own cereal bars using protein powder for a fast and convenient breakfast snack.

Fruits

Adding a bowl of fruit near the till or on the counter is an easy way up-sell to customers as they grab their morning coffee. You could also create freshly made fruit pots with different types of fruits in them, from apples and grapes to mango and pineapple. This will help allow you to really open your margins and make more profit.

TIP: Make your breakfast service the best it can be with our full food display range.

What Should You Have On Your Menu?

Breakfast doesn’t have to be boring. Customers are starting to demand more indulgent and adventurous dishes for breakfast, from doughnut breakfast burgers to poached eggs on porridge. Jumping on the emerging and existing trends will help you bring in new customers looking for something different and help create a buzz around your business. However, you’ll still need to keep to the theme or style of your menu. People won’t expect a grill house to start serving eggs on cranberries! So what can you do?

Create and Combine

Imagine two things that don’t normally belong on the same plate and combine them to create a fusion of strange but delicious flavours. This is the essence of hybrid breakfasts. Bacon and martinis. Combining a fried breakfast with a doughnut. The possibilities are endless. And the demand from customers is growing daily. They want to enjoy a breakfast they wouldn’t usually make themselves. Something that sparks the imagination and excites the taste buds.

A great way to build on this trend is to ask your customers to create their own hybrid breakfasts as a competition. Not only will this save you the time and effort of imagining, testing and creating a new breakfast idea, but it will also help your venue to gain some exposure. Make sure you’re sharing your wacky and wonderful creations on social media, too.

Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs

Although eggs have always been a popular choice for breakfast, egg dishes are rapidly becoming more and more popular for breakfast buffs. From poached eggs on toast to Turkish Shakshuka, adding eggs to your menu is easy. You can even combine trends to create a hybrid breakfast that incorporates eggs. Or offer a dish with egg whites only as an even healthier option. The good thing about adding an egg-based dish or two to your menu is that they aren’t restricted to just breakfast. You could serve a Full English or Eggs Benedict 24/7.

Brisk Breakfasts

Speed, convenience and flavour. “Quick me ups”, as they’ve been dubbed, cater for busy lifestyles, where a quick, healthy breakfast snack is needed. They can be anything from a snack-pot filled with oats and fruits to a fruit-filled smoothie to take away.

Adding a ‘quick me up’ option to your menu is really simple. Combine together ingredients you already have to create an affordable, easy to make and convenient breakfast option. Use plastic tubs and cups to create take-away options or use Hi Ball glasses to create a decadent breakfast pot. With both Millennials and Gen Zers willing to spend more on healthier options, this is a great way to attract new customers whilst profiting your business.

Not everyone wants to sit down to eat their breakfast. Finding a way to offer your customers a breakfast that they can take with them on their way to work is a key step to providing a breakfast or brunch offering. Yoghurt topped with fruit. Breakfast rolls. Even breakfast burritos.

How can you make the most of brisk breakfasts?

People rarely have time during the week to visit their favourite restaurant and order a cooked breakfast. Busy work schedules mean people are eating on the go. Whether it’s a pot of fruit, cereal bar or smoothie, providing quick, cheap and convenient breakfast options is crucial. Fill a plastic container with yoghurt, oats and fruit to create a convenient, take-away breakfast. Or simply fill a take-away food container with a mixture of fruit. Healthy, take-away options are favourites for the too-busy-to-eat daily masses.

TIP: The mark-up on fruit can be as high as 60%, making healthy options cheap to make and highly profitable.

Make way for Brunch

More and more customers are blurring the line between meal times and choosing to go out for brunch instead of breakfast or lunch. It ties in with workers going out for a bite to eat during their breaks or meetings.

However, the true market here is social gatherings on weekends. Customers want a place to eat and socialise, without being confined to the three standard meal times. Brunch can come in many forms. From the boozy excursions to the all-you-can-eat brunch. If you find mid-morning is your quietest time, add a shareable dish such as a large pizza, or incorporate a social element to your venue such as bottomless drinks with meals.

This will help you cater for groups that want to sit, eat and talk for longer periods of time. With families eating out weekly, the market for brunch is one worth tapping in to.

More and more trends emerge all the time and it can be difficult to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not. Ensuring you capitalise on each trend will help you stay in the forefront of customers minds. Reading industry magazines or blogs from industry respected figures can help you understand what could be the next big thing.

How can you make the most of brunch?

The weekend is when you can really roll out the red carpet for your breakfast. The weekends are when customers actively make the choice to go out to eat. And their tastes and wants are changing. Although the fry up is still a firm favourite among adults in the UK, Millennials and Gen Zers are asking for healthier options, as well as unique creations. So what can you do to differentiate yourself from the competition?

There are a few different types of weekend breakfast-er that you may want to cater for. There is the traditional full-English with a nice cuppa. Whilst being a safe and solid option to keep on your menu, you may want to start offering this into the afternoon or even 24/7, as some restaurants are already doing.

The times people are eating breakfast are changing, and the lines between breakfast and lunch are beginning to blur. Brunch is increasingly becoming a social event for the younger generations. And healthy options are on the agenda. Offering a hearty breakfast throughout the day will help you to capitalise on the growing trend of brunch. The number of people eating out during mid-morning is rising every year. But they don’t just want a traditional Full English. Adapting your menu and opening times will help you find success in this rapidly growing trend.

With brunch being such a social event, it’s important to create the right atmosphere. Overly loud music will make it hard for customers to hear each other, making it a less attractive place to invite your friends. Offering wifi is another great way of create the right environment to attract groups. Customers want to share pictures on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram of what they’re eating, drink and where they are, and offering wifi makes this easier for them. And when their followers see they food they’ve eaten at your venue, they’ll want to experience it too.

Article: Want to learn more about social media? Find out how social media can help your venue with this article.