​Focus On Breakfast & Brunch: 8 August

Focus On: Breakfast & Brunch by Daniel Woolfson 

Publishing: 8 August

Advertising deadline: 29 July

Download the synopsis

Submissions deadline: 20 July

The story

Brits have hardly been on the move of late. So how have on-the-go breakfast options performed during lockdown? With few people commuting, how have handy brands coped and, indeed, evolved? And what might the future bring for convenient breakfast formats? Meanwhile, with people having more time at home, what has their morning meal comprised? And how have suppliers been serving demand?

Key themes

Convenience: what has lockdown meant for on-the-go options? How have their makers adapted? And how are they preparing for the future, when more people could spend more time working from home?

Evolution: how much has breakfast changed recently? Have people in lockdown been tucking into traditional bowls of cereal or even cooked breakfasts of a morning? If so, what have they been eating – and how have suppliers capitalised? Who’s done best – and who’s innovated most?

Cooking: a couple of years ago, eggs were driving a rise in cooked breakfasts. Now, history seems to be repeating itself, as eggs are once again a focus of the morning meal. How much so? And why? Are cooked breakfasts back – and how have they changed of late given trends such as veganism?

Health: banishing high sugar cereals to the top shelf has little impact on purchases of healthier food, a trial involving leading supermarkets has shown. So what else can retailers and brands do to encourage healthy breakfast choices? Beyond sugar, what are people’s health concerns?

Promotions: how has the lack of supermarket promotions driven shoppers’ breakfast choices?

Morning goods: the pandemic meant the closure of supermarkets’ in-store bakeries. So how have morning goods performed – and what might their future hold, especially given concerns over the sugar and fat contents of muffins, pastries and the like?

Brunch: weekend brunch was the new big thing last year. Have Brits kept up the trend? How has it been affected by the closure of cafes and restaurants?

Packaging: how much of an environmental threat are the plastic porridge pots and inner bags of cereal boxes? And how are suppliers addressing the problem of plastic waste? Who’s made the greenest moves?

Innovations: we identify eight new products that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before including launch date and RSP, and a picture of each.

Kantar: using Kantar commentary, we identify the reasons behind the rise and fall of the relevant sub categories.

Nielsen: using Nielsen commentary, the we explain the reasons behind the rise and fall of the leading breakfast brands.