Magazine: Have a nice breakfast!

Ákos Bősze
business development executive (HoReCa)
METRO

Ákos Bősze, METRO’s business development executive (HoReCa) told our magazine that the breakfast service of restaurants seems to be one of the fastest-recovering segments in hospitality. In the period before the COVID-19 crisis the breakfast business was booming in Budapest and the bigger cities. A large proportion of tourists staying in Airbnb flats didn’t want to bother with preparing breakfast, plus university students also preferred having breakfast somewhere else than their rented rooms. The third target group of eateries serving breakfast was secondary school students and their parents, especially in the city centre. A bit later in the morning businessmen tended to negotiate with partners over a late breakfast. This system worked very well up until March 2020.

Eat breakfast like a king – if you want. Breakfast can be easily made healthy and enriched with functional ingredients, superfood

Starting over

The reopening after the pandemic rearranged the breakfast scene: some of the target groups who used to have breakfast quite early haven’t returned to restaurants yet. Instead of them home office workers came, sitting in with their laptops for online meetings – the problem is that generally they don’t eat much.

Meanwhile bakeries have realised that much bigger profit can be made if they don’t just sell baked goods but sandwiches as well. The key to success is to serve better quality than the usual mass products, with a good price-value ratio. Our magazine’s view is that the growing snack trend has no real influence on the world of breakfast. The breakfast trend has more to do with our increasing mobility and lack of time.

The three pillars of selling breakfast in the HoReCa sector are anytime, anywhere and also on the go!

Delivery

Debóra Blaumann
marketing director
foodpanda

In the last year and a half the number of breakfast deliveries has been growing – informed Debóra Blaumann, marketing director of foodpanda. The average spending was between HUF 2,900 and 3,100. It is the breakfast offer of large fast food chains that is the most popular. Ms Blaumann added that now that the major retail chains have joined and foodpanda’s own grocery store chain is also up and running, the company plans to make fresh Hungarian products (even artisan food) available to their more than 2 million customers. The average customer orders breakfast 1.5 times a month. Outside of Budapest Szeged and Debrecen are the biggest breakfast ordering places.

What is in the box?

Compared with last September, the number of breakfast restaurants in foodpanda’s (formerly called NetPincér) offering doubled: customers can order food from more than 120 such places. The company’s experience is that demand is the biggest for brunch type breakfasts (hearty warm meals). Recent data have shown that only less than a third of orders were for one product only, another third were for two products and many customers order three, four or more products at the same time. Foodpanda’s data indicate that 5-10 percent of orders contain coffee, in most cases latte. The company calculates with further increase in the number of orders, although this also depends on acquiring new partners and on expanding the network of own stores.

The temples of breakfast

József Septe
president
Hungarian Baker Association

József Septe, president of the Hungarian Baker Association spoke to our magazine about the growing demand for a breakfast service in bakeries – be it baked goods, sandwiches or street food type dishes. The president added that people feel much more like having a coffee outside of their homes than before the pandemic, for instance in a nice bakery, at the same time also having breakfast there with friends or acquaintances. He also mentioned the trend of bakeries selling fewer dairy products than energy drinks: many secondary school students and students in the 7th and 8th year of primary school purchase these instead of proper breakfast food in the morning.

Bakery 1.1

In other parts of the world city bakeries are at a higher level of development than in Hungary, in spite of the fact that there are more and more attractive places in Hungary as well, with a large product selection (often made of alternative flours and/or vegetables), a small coffee or tea room, a pick-up point, etc. Customers expect fast order and payment using their smartphones.

Szilárd Kelemen, Fornetti Group’s international franchise and concept division director revealed that consumers give preference to sweet products when deciding what to have for breakfast. The product selection now also includes low-calorie, free-from, vegetarian and vegan baked goods. Demand is on the rise for innovative salty products that can even substitute a lunch.

Cakes, dairy products and coffee

According to Dr Zoltán Tóth, managing director of bakery chain Lipóti Pékség, the majority of consumers like classic combinations for breakfast: baked goods, cold cuts, salamis. During the pandemic customers switched to purchasing more large-sized products with longer shelf life.

Nóra Kajtár
Alpro brand manager
Danone Magyarország

Nóra Kajtár, Alpro’s brand manager talked to our magazine about the growing popularity of out-of-home eating and drinking among young consumers. They really like milk and yogurt drinks and various bars. When buying, parents also take into consideration whether the products require chilling or not, and how convenient their consumption is.

Tamás Gulyás, marketing director of Pannon Kávé reported that most places of accommodation have reached a level where they don’t want to serve cheap coffee with the breakfast any more. They can purchase automatic coffee makers that prepare a variety of brews from freshly ground, quality coffee.

Snack and breakfast – two in one – the food industry produces various bites fitting the latest health trends

Global trends

How does the rest of the world see the breakfast trend? One of the latest consumer attitudes is that having breakfast is nice all day. Fast food chains have already reacted to this consumer need, for instance in many countries McDonald’s serves breakfast menus throughout the day. Consumers also like to enjoy plant-based, functional, organic and natural foods in the morning. Cereals are just as popular as before and pancakes will always be the stars of the breakfast table – from the latter category waffles are in trend now. Alcoholic drinks are more and more present at brunches, in the form of Champagne and wine cocktails. People like to try special flavours, surprising ingredients and sophisticated packaging designs.

Waffles – both salty and sweet – are in trend now from among pancakes

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Trendek and traditions

Dr. Zoltán Tóth
managing director
Lipóti Pékség

Keeping up with modern trends, some units of our Lipóti Pékség bakery franchise also serve breakfast. Our product selection contains not only traditional baked goods, but also wholemeal bakery items, high-fibre baked goods and also baguettes, ciabattas and other breads rich in unsaturated fats. These products are delivered to the bakers pre-baked and frozen, facilitating stock management for partners. //

Joghurt on-the-go

Júlia Szalainé Aszódi
commercial development
manager
Danone Magyarország

Our surveys have found that shoppers tend to choose plain yogurt and kefir for breakfast, which they enjoy with baked goods or sandwiches, and many of them put various fruits, muesli and honey in them. In our innovation work we keep in mind the growing on-the-go consumption trend, so we have launched several new drinks, foods that don’t require chilling for a few hours and children’s favourite: yogurt in a bag. //

 

Ongoing product innovation

Szilárd Kelemen
international franchise and
concept division director
Fornetti Group

A considerable share of Fornetti’s sales is realised in the morning period. Our product selection now also has low-calorie, free-from, vegetarian and vegan baked goods. We didn’t stop innovation during the pandemic: we launched a frozen product range for home baking, which consumers could really trust and prepare in their homes to enjoy tasty fresh baked goods. //

Breakfast time? Let’s have a sandwich!

Márk Maczelka
head of communications
SPAR

Sandwiches are very popular when it comes to having breakfast. This year nearly 25 new products came out of the SPAR enjoy.convenience production plant and innovation work doesn’t stop, as the segment of fresh sandwiches and salads is developing fast. Home schooling and working from home made an impact on sandwich sales during the pandemic –sales plunged nearly 50 percent. //

András Lengyel
managing director
ERU Food Trading

Several formats of our Camping cheese products are superb choices for making grilled or classic sandwiches for breakfast. Demand stays strong for lactose-free Camping cheese varieties – these are also available in several formats and flavours. Home consumption strengthened during the pandemic. For professional partners (hotels and restaurants) we offer 1kg and 15g (single-serve) Dutch cheese varieties in special flavours. //

Traditional breakfast products

Aliz Varga
senior brand manager
Sole-Mizo

Dairy products are traditionally an important part of breakfast. Sole-Mizo Zrt. offers a wide range of products incl. milk, butter, cream spread, cheese, yogurt, kefir, cocoa drink and ice coffee, also in lactose-free and low-sugar variants. Demand for RTD, on-the-go and other convenient products is on the rise.
Due to the changes in breakfast habits, classic categories see a double-digit growth, whereas the on-the-go segment has been in a slight decrease. 2021 seems to have brought about a return to normal. //

A widening breakfast range

Matild Zákány
head of the shop division
Shell Hungary

For breakfast, we offer fresh bakery products, pastries and hot-dog that is highly popular early mornings. The coffee selection of the recently introduced Shell Café brand is also received well by customers. For vegetarians and vegans we provide a special range of food adapted to their diets and they can enjoy their coffee enriched with plant-based drinks. //

More meat, less fat

Beáta Bukovenszki 
head of domestic sales
Gallicoop

The number of conscious customers preferring and opting for products with low fat and high meat content is constantly on the rise. Many cannot eat cooked food during the day, which prompted us to develop high-quality products with high turkey meat content that are rich in vitamins and protein. We offer salamis and hams in four taste variants and in smaller, easy-to-handle packs. //

Let’s drink fruit for breakfast

Anett Polyák
trade marketing
manager
Rauch Hungaria

To ensure a wide variety of juices for those loving substantial breakfasts, we’ve added the Fruit&Veggie brand to our Happy Day portfolio. These products are a combination of fruit and vegetable juices, without added sugar and with vitamins.

In support of the immune system of consumers, three new cold-pressed and cooled products with vitamins and minerals are to be rolled out under the Rauch Juice Bar brand this winter.
In order to support seamless and easy provision of buffet breakfasts in the hospitality sector, RAUCH offers multiple push-button drink dispensers such as the Premix fruit-dispenser or the Postmix system.//

András Palkó
marketing operations manager
Coca-Cola HBC
Magyarország

Our company offers the right product for every consumption occasion. High fruit content Cappy fruit juices are rich in vitamins – they are perfect with a breakfast at home or on the go. The same can be said about our plant-based drinks: AdeZ almond, coconut, rice or granola products are ideal for making muesli or flavouring coffee. Surveys we have conducted in Hungary revealed that the conscious lifestyle decisions of consumers also manifest in what they have for breakfast. //

Freshly ground

Tamás Gulyás
marketing director
Pannon Kávé

Pannon Kávé Kft. provides hospitality partners with coffee machines as well. These make coffee and coffee-based drinks from freshly ground beans. Our experience is that espresso, long coffee and milk coffee are the most popular with breakfast. In the evening period decaf coffee and ristretto are the top choices. There are 15-20 different drinks available in our selection of freshly-ground coffee based drinks.//

Health-conscious shoppers

Ildikó Varga-Futó
communications and CSR director
Auchan

In Auchan’s large product selection every shopper finds the sweet, salty or healthy breakfast food they like, from jams and honeys through cheese and cold cuts to mueslis, porridges and dairy products. Healthiness is an important product choice factor and we at Auchan pay special attention to product composition, for instance to sugar and fruit content. Home coffee consumption strengthened during the pandemic and egg became one of the most popular food products.//