Magazine: No matter when you rise, you will find gold!

A nationwide survey by Kellogg’s on the breakfast eating habits of Hungarian families – conducted this spring – has found that the majority of Hungarians say: they skip a healthy and diverse breakfast because it is complicated to make. It also turned out that 30 percent of young adults who live in a family don’t have breakfast. Twice as many of them don’t have breakfast because they aren’t hungry in the morning. Most adults spend 5-15 minutes with eating in the morning, instead of the ideal 15-30 minutes.

Providing a firm basis!

Breakfast is associated with health to a greater extent than the other main meals of the day. This fact is worth taking into consideration when developing products or morning dishes – and when communicating about them. Breakfast is probably the easiest meal to healthify, for instance you can compile one that consists of nothing but superfoods. At the same time breakfast is becoming more important in our lives.

Innovation work is adapting to the main culinary trends in the breakfast segment too, as demand is on the rise for convenience food, bite-size food, the flavours of international cuisine, personalisation and two other very important trends: snackification, which means that breakfast elements are turning up in the world of snacks in many forms; formerly table-bound breakfast types are turning into on-the-go products.

Granolas, seeds and dried fruits do not lag behind the evergreen, diversely formed, mixed, flavoured and coloured flakes anymore

Shall I have breakfast or not?

Experiments have proved that those pupils who have breakfast behave and perform better throughout the day, while adults feel better and can work more if they had something to eat in the morning. If one wants to eat out in the morning, they have much more options than 20-30-40 years ago, thanks to the progress made by Hungary’s coffee house culture. Most of those places where you can have breakfast are in the proximity of universities and office buildings – basically in the city centre.

Shall I serve breakfast or not?

Cafés, bars or restaurants have to decide whether they need breakfast guests, and if they do, the service can be profitable or not. The main target group doesn’t have breakfast at the break of dawn. Those who go to work early are served by fast food restaurants, coffee house chains or the snack bars of petrol stations. McDonald’s and Burger King now sell better coffee than before, while Starbucks serves hot breakfast in more units than earlier. Times change: Herb Peterson, the inventor of McDonald’s Egg McMuffin revealed in his book that back in 1972 he had thought the idea of morning sandwiches was absurd, but by now Egg McMuffin has become one of the chain’s iconic products.

Will the breakfast trend reach Hungary or not?

In the USA McDonald’s, Starbucks and others started testing breakfast service throughout the day 15 years ago. The success of brunches proves that there is demand for this type of service in Hungary too. Due to the pandemic no all-day breakfast service has been available in the USA since March. It is noteworthy that the majority of franchisees don’t wish to return to it, because it requires much more manual work than classic fast food restaurant meals.

According to a US study that was published this summer, breakfast menus will rest on three pillars in the future: ‘on-the-go, anytime, anywhere’. Diversity and personalised breakfasts can bring success. The dietary trends of today speak even louder in the case of breakfasts – morning food needs to be healthy, rich in protein, plant-based or organic. Plus cafés and restaurant owners mustn’t forget that just like with all other business activities, planning and market research should be done before giving it a go!

Before 9.00 or after 9.00?

We have already mentioned that business breakfasts or meeting with friends for breakfast don’t start before 9.00. Café and restaurant owners must bear in mind that the function of such breakfasts in the city is different from that of early or hotel breakfasts. Brunch concepts are utilised more and more frequently at weekends in Budapest, where some restaurants already specialise in this. Some thematic-concept places offer all-you-can-eat: US chain IHOP came out with an all-day unlimited pancake offer to boost sales (it must also be mentioned that other types of food were also available at discount prices during the promotion).

Chorizo with scrambled eggs-to-go is not an absurd concept anymore: to-go variants of traditional breakfast are successful at street food kiosks and in canteens of student hostels, too

Today or tomorrow?

The Covid-19 crisis generated consumer demand for breakfast delivery too: a recent survey by Netpincér has revealed that by the end of May the number of breakfast orders nearly doubled and it didn’t drop after the end of the lockdown either. What can you have for breakfast in Budapest? Anything you want, from the simplest food to the most complex dishes. Cold and hot sandwiches, bagels and cheesecakes, cinnamon and hazelnut rolls, egg dishes and sausages made on the spot, burritos and full English breakfasts, croissants with duck ham or goat’s cheese, pancakes and waffles, humus and risotto, and retro baked goods – just to list a few. Perhaps where we would like to see more choices is cereals and morning soups. Serving breakfast is good business, you just have to find your own market niche.

Drive-thru window in the Fejedelmi Bakery in Tiszakécska

//

Matild Zákány
shop division manager
Shell Hungary

More and more drivers stop at fuel stations to have or take away breakfast. In addition to hot dogs, which are also available in crescent rolls from graham flour and gluten- and lactose-free frankfurters, and sandwiches, Shell offers locally baked goods. Seeing price sensitivity in shopping habits, the two most popular sandwiches with ham and salami are sold at favourable prices. We offer Italian coffee, also with plant-based drink for lactose-intolerant customers. //

Levente Németh
associate marketing
manager
Nestlé Cereals

Erzsébet Sörös
field sales manager
beverages
Nestlé Hungária

When having baked goods for breakfast, people in small town tend to drink espresso, while in cities demand has increased for the so-called ‘terrace experience’, when customers enjoy their favourite cup of coffee in a comfortable chair. Following the market trends and satisfying customer needs, our Nestlé Professional business line introduced premium category NESCAFÉ manual espresso machines and automatic coffee makers to the Hungarian market, plus we added the NESCAFÉ® Superiore and Espresso coffee varieties to our coffee selection. //

Ákos Bősze
business development manager–HoReCa
Metro

Breakfast’s quality is top-ranking for travellers when rating accommodation. METRO monitors the demands of guests and any changes therein and adjusts its breakfast offering accordingly, always keeping in mind the hosts’ success. With METRO, hosts can offer solutions for flexitarian, health-conscious and other guests who are after local tastes. Development not only concerns breakfast ingredients but also ready-to-serve and semi-prepared solutions such as breakfast juices. //

István Mikos
CEO
Ceres

Breakfast and toast bread can’t be separated from each other, and we offer a wide range of breads and several types of sweet bread. Ceres products perfectly fit into a healthy diet, for instance many Ceres toast breads are made with wholemeal flour. Shoppers really like our low-carb breads, and our gluten-free muffins and toast bread are very popular too. Our innovation work is based on market trends and needs – our latest innovation is the Vegan Loaf, which is made with tasty vegetables and various seeds. //

Fast food for breakfast

Márk Maczelka
head of communications
SPAR

Breakfast holds its ground in every family’s life. A shift in consumption from wheat flakes to oatmeals and oat flakes can recently be seen, but the category of mueslis and the classic wheat flakes remained important amidst the morning haste.

Another line of supplements of a nutritious breakfast is represented by seeds (psyllium husk, chia) in our assortment.

In general, breakfast cereals’ sugar content has been reduced, also at SPAR, and we also offer „no-added-sugar” products.  //

COVID and hotel breakfasts

Experts say the Covid situation will transform the meal protocol in hotels for a long time. Many places will stop serving buffet breakfast: breakfast will be served either on a plate or pre-packaged, and guests will get to decide whether they have it in the hotel’s restaurant or in their own room.

//

With decades of experience

Tibor Meskál
senior duty manager
Corinthia Hotel Budapest

Gundel Award winner Tibor Meskál, senior duty manager of Corinthia Hotel Budapest visited the best hotels and restaurants in Berlin, Rome, Sydney, Melbourne, London and New York during his 60-year career: ‘Working in hotels in different parts of the world, what I saw was that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day for every nation.’

‘Today exclusive places crease a wellness corner for serving breakfast, offering seasonal fruits, freshly pressed smoothies, dried fruits, nuts and cereals for mixing mueslis, and all of these are accompanied with low-fat and plant-based milks. One of the latest trends is vegetables cut into pieces – these are called crudités. As for baked goods, gluten-free, wholemeal and rye products are the most popular.’ //

 

Katalin Nock-Vető
marketing manager
Pek-Snack

Whoever eats breakfast in a Pek-Snack bakery shop will surely appease their hunger. In our turbulent times, consumers tend to buy something for breakfast while on the go to school or work, cosy family breakfast moments remain for the weekend. Pek-Snack pays special attention to health-consciousness: beyond low-carb products, we also offer lactose-free baked goods without compromising on taste. //

Palkó András
marketing operations manager
Coca-Cola HBC
Magyarország

Shoppers show the biggest demand for those high fruit content juices that are considered healthy – often they also have some kind of added functionality. Recently large-sized products for home consumption have become more popular. We are present in every segment of the fruit juice category. Our view is that there are several innovation opportunities left, in line with changing consumer needs. Next year we will back our Cappy brand with strong 360-degree marketing support. //

Szilárd Kelemen
director of international franchise and
concept
Fornetti Group

Fornetti serves one million customers a day and our experience is that they are looking for classic baked goods when buying breakfast. In Budapest people like salty ones better, while in North East Hungary more sweet bakery items are sold – in all other parts of the country there is a 50-50 percent ratio for the two types. Fornetti keeps monitoring customer needs and habits and defines innovation directions based on these. At the moment we are busy developing ‘free-from’ low-carb products that are rich in fibres.//

Nóra Csuti
marketing director
Danone Hungary

Danone’s Activia Mix&Go grants a ready-to-eat solution, while pure or flavoured yoghurts with nuts, muesli and fruits make a great breakfast. The Alpro-range offers naturally lactose-free drinks, soya and coconutgurt, as well as sugar-free products in the “No Sugar” line. Many Danone products fit in low-fat or low-sodium diets, and options meeting the low-sugar and „no added sugar” demand (such as Actimel) are also available. Alpro for Professionals products in different tastes are developed for the HoReCa-sector.//

Anita Pusztai
marketing manager
Sió-Eckes

When developing its product portfolio, Sió-Eckes wants to deploy the opportunities provided by breakfast. Also SIÓ Start breakfast drinks launched in 2020 focus on breakfast not only with their name and packaging but also the autumn product launch campaign. Consumers of Hohes C products with 100% fruit content can take in the recommended daily amount of Vitamine C in the morning. For urban youth, on-the-go breakfast products such as SIÓ Smoothies are an excellent source of energy: 100% natural and healthy, rich in fibres and vitamins. //

Zsolt Weidinger
commercial manager
Cerbona

In the last few years demand has been growing for mueslis and oatmeal products, for instance Hungarians started having instant porridge for breakfast. We follow the latest trends and set innovation directions in accordance with these. For instance all kinds of breakfast products can be found in our gluten-free portfolio – the Cerbona gluten-free oat flakes were launched a few months ago. Healthy on-the-go snacks are also very important for us, recently we have rolled out the plant-based, no added sugar RawBar range. //