The Battle for Breakfast

Research from NPD, the market information group indicates that we are increasingly grabbing the first meal of the day out of the house.

Since 2008, we have eaten breakfast out an extra 107 million times, while lunch has lost 80 million visits in the same period.

Average spend has also increase – we are spending 31% more on breakfast compared with 2008 with the average breakfast spend being £3.30

The breakfast club, a ‘trendy’ café that was launched in 2005 now has 9 restaurants across London and Brighton. However, the growth in breakfast isn’t confined to fashionable eateries. Places like Weatherspoon’s and Greggs are also capitalising on the breakfast market.

Cyril Lavenant from NPD says that Coffee is the key driver. If businesses don’t serve good coffee then customers don’t come back.

To add a further ingredient into the mix, it seems that breakfast is also a much cheaper way of socialising and that many people are choosing to meet for breakfast for a first date.

It should therefore come as no surprise that McDonalds has reported a like for like sales increase of 3.5% in the three months to September which they put down an improved all-day breakfast menu with the chain adding biscuits, McMuffins and McGriddles to its all day breakfast menu.