How Zarraffa's, The Coffee Club plan to get a bigger bite of breakfast

The brands also look to cater to ever-changing consumer patterns.

Easy to carry but superior food items may be a key area for chains looking to get a bigger bite of the breakfast space as customers adapt to ever-changing guidelines, top chains tell QSR Media.

Zarraffa’s Coffee founder Kenton Campbell expects the breakfast scene to change by the end of this year, expecting chains with both drive-thru capability and a “higher quality” breakfast offer to flourish.

Whilst looking to develop its afternoon and evening dayparts, Campbell stressed that breakfast - running from five to eleven in the morning across their stores - needs to be their number one focus, also considering drive-thru customers when developing their food items.

“You don't want to kill that breakfast time. You don't want to take away from the thing that traditionally we should be known for,” he said.

The breakfast day part is also the strongest sales period by far for The Coffee Club, both in terms of sales and in the number of customers.

“Whilst breakfast has always been strong, in 2020 we have certainly seen a surge in this daypart with more customers visiting before 11am. Compared to other dayparts, our morning trade has shown the greatest growth over the last 12 months,” chief brand officer Megan Magill said.

The Minor DKL Food Group-owned chain’s breakfast trade peaks at 9am, even on weekends. Magill noted, however, that their all-day breakfast items stretch a little later into the lunch daypart, citing customers looking to get brunch.

Both chains, unsurprisingly, cite coffee as their most popular product. For Zarraffa’s, cappuccino, lattes and flat whites were cited by Campbell as their top options. On morning food options, morning croissants, Zed bread and smashed avo top their list. For The Coffee Club, their signatures make up their top five, whilst new menu items from their grab & go offer follow suit as takeaway and convenience options became more popular.

“The most notable observation from 2020 is that our customers are getting up earlier, visiting us earlier in the day than ever before and making our afternoons a little quieter than our pre-COVID trade. As areas and states are impacted by lockdown measures, we have seen that many of our customers are very open to interacting with us in new ways including takeaway or through delivery,” Magill explained, adding that customers returned to old habits when stores reopened for dine-in.

“After the longer stints of lockdowns, it is also evident through our average order values that customers do visit in larger groups, perhaps making up for lost time and getting together for overdue family and friend catch-ups.”

Campbell shared a similar observation in terms of order values.

“Our statistics say that [our average customers] are women between 25 and 40 [with] usually a couple of kids, and they drive the family towards us,” he said.

Diversifying breakfast options to adapt to changing behaviour
To take advantage of growing transaction volumes, Campbell said Zarraffa’s intends to ramp up its food offering during breakfast starting next winter, aiming to add more complementary items to their coffees, saying it might take up to three years to “roll the whole thing out.”

“It'll make a significant impact on the coffee and what - the other thing that the person might want in the morning,” he said.

It currently has a Black Label range, starting with its single origin Kenyan Ntongoro. Merchandise such as thermo serves, mugs and other gift options are planned to be introduced between next winter and Christmas.

“We want to be the front runners in the fourth wave of coffee, which is...being able to supply not just specialty coffee [but] still be a smaller batch roaster,” he explained.

Expanding their product range during breakfast is also part of The Coffee Club’s plans in the next six to 12 months, citing ever-changing guidelines and convenience.

“Certainly a huge challenge in this daypart is the impact of changing routines on ‘coffee only’ sales, or those customers that pop in to The Coffee Club on their morning commute to work or school drop off that, when working from home, are no longer on the agenda,” Magill explained.

“Perhaps the biggest challenge is continuously adapting to the ever-changing guidelines to keep customers and staff safe whilst also providing our customers with the best possible product and experience.”

“We’ll continue to offer customers exciting seasonal flavours and new beverages throughout the year, whilst still offering those signature dishes that we are known for and working to source our quality products in the most responsible and sustainable way possible," she added.