Breakfast Serves Up 60% of Restaurant Traffic

CHICAGOThe old adage of breakfast is the most important meal of the day certainly rings true according to a recent NPD Group report that revealed breakfast accounted for nearly 60 percent of the restaurant industrys traffic growth over the past five years. The report also found that if not for the breakfast daypart faring relatively better than other dayparts, restaurant visit declines over the last two years would have been steeper.

For the year ending March 2010, there were more than 12 billion morning meals served at U.S. restaurants, and 80 percent of restaurant morning meals were purchased from quick service restaurants. Over the past five years, morning meal traffic increased an average of +2 percent per year, comparatively, while lunch visits were flat, and supper traffic declined by -2 percent per year on average.

Breakfast has been and is projected to continue to be a bright spot for the restaurant industry, said Bonnie Riggs, NPDs restaurant industry analyst.  A restaurant morning meal serves a variety of needs. In addition to helping us jump start our day, it satisfies the need for convenience, is less costly than other restaurant meals, and is readily available to us.

Recognizing the importance of the morning meal as an opportunity to capture share as well as build consumer loyalty, major chains have recently announced expansion into the breakfast daypart. NPD's QSR Market Monitor, which monitors local market activity for quick service restaurant chains, finds one reason for this expansion is that consumers who visit a chain for more than one daypart, tend to be more loyal, more likely to recommend the chain, more frequent visitors, and contribute more volume.

Two of the fastest growing menu items these restaurant visitors order are specialty coffee and breakfast sandwiches From February 2005 through February 2010, servings of specialty coffee and breakfast sandwiches grew twice as fast as the industry.

According to a soon-to-be-released report by NPD, The Future of Foodservice, which provides a ten-year forecast of foodservice trends based on aging, population growth, and trend momentum, servings of breakfast sandwiches are projected to outpace the industrys growth forecast. Annual servings per capita of breakfast sandwiches at foodservice are forecasted to jump from 11 in 2004 to 14 in 2019.