Chart from Meaningful Vision.
Here's what morning traffic is doing to UK's QSR brands
The first half of the year saw a 13.9% boost in morning traffic.
Breakfast trade is getting a boost from morning traffic, revealing interesting data from different formats, data from Meaningful Vision revealed.
In the first half of the year, morning traffic grew by 13.6% eclipsing the afternoon peak, with breakfast now boasting a substantial 27% share of daily footfall.
Meaningful Vision revealed that the most popular formats serving breakfast in the UK are bakery and sandwich shops, both of whom enjoyed a significant uptick in traffic during early (6-9 am) and mid-morning (9-12 pm) slots in H1 2024.
Coffee shops are also contributing to the trend with a 10% increase in early morning visits. Notably, despite fewer overall customers, the 6-9 am period attracted twice as many new customers when compared to the 9-12 am slot.
Interestingly, the burger segment also saw a growth of 36% in morning traffic with customers taking advantage of breakfast menus featuring frequent promos, a widening variety of choices, and attractive prices. This rapid growth firmly establishes burger chains amongst the major players during the morning period.
Meanwhile, footfall in the afternoon period shows more modest growth, with chicken shops emerging as the key driver of traffic growth between 12 pm and 3 pm and contributing the largest volume of traffic to the overall afternoon peak.
Evening challenge
The evening and night-time periods appear to pose a challenge for operators, with a 12% decline in traffic. This trend underscores the urgent need for innovative strategies to revitalise traffic during these dayparts.
CEO of Meaningful Vision Maria Vanifatova emphasises the critical importance to restaurants of understanding these evolving consumer patterns, stating.
“Overall foodservice traffic growth for 2024 is flat, but footfall in the morning period bucks this trend, and for several reasons. Offices are busy with people once again with demand for morning essentials like coffee and sandwiches remaining strong. Chains offering excellent value, frequent new offerings and money-saving promotions are performing well in a growing market. Access to detailed, up-to-date, and accurate market data is essential to creating successful promotions and maintaining the competitive prices currently attracting the most customers,” Vanifatova said.
