Muffin Break boosts menu with new Made-To-Order concept

Find out what inspired them with the revamp.

Recently, Muffin Break introduced a new Made-To-Order menu which highlights a wide range of breakfast, lunch, and all-day meals. Along with this, the brand will be unveiling a warmer look and more spacious layout for their revamped cafes.

Read the full report here.

Below is a Q&A with John Macphail, Muffin Break Brand Manager.

QSR Media: Tell us more about the revamped café design. What inspired its new look?

Macphail: The reinvigoration of the Muffin Break brand is the result of market research commissioned by the Foodco Group last year. Based on the research, today’s typical Muffin Break customer not only wants to see, hear, smell and ‘feel the freshness’ of the Muffin Break daily baking process, she also seeks: “...a moment in my day just for me, when I can enjoy great coffee that’s good value, and get a fresh baked treat on the side. Hey I deserve it!”

A myriad of modifications specifically designed to enhance each ‘me-moment’ for customers are being gradually applied to all Muffin Break marketing communications and in all Muffin Break cafés.

Gone are the days of enclosed and somewhat clinical-looking baking areas at Muffin Break. The revamped café design has a more spacious layout and visible kitchen areas for customers to see more of Muffin Break’s trained staff in their element as they ‘Bake Every Day and Grind Every Cup’ – an endorsement displayed as a focal point of each new-look Muffin Break café.

The revamped cafés also feature a softer colour palette of warm hues, full-length and transparent muffin cooling cabinets and other unique trimmings such as light fixtures that resemble cooking-whisks.

The furniture and general décor is more modern than in previous years. It’s designed to create a more special ambiance for customers to sit back and really enjoy their ‘me-moment’ at Muffin Break.

QSR Media: What inspired the brand to come up with the ‘Made-To-Order’ concept of the menu?

Macphail: The Muffin Break Made-To-Order menu highlights the fact that today’s Muffin Break offers far more than just muffins. We’ve found that our customers today want more of a gourmet offering in addition to Muffin Break’s renowned freshly-baked goods and coffee. The Made-To-Order menu is one of several ways we’re answering this call from our customers.

QSR Media: What are the key features of the new menu?

Macphail: Breakfast Made-To-Order before 11am – including short stack pancakes, premium Brookfarm muesli with Greek yoghurt and seasonal fruits, as well as the ‘Big Breakfast’ plate of two eggs, sausages, bacon, grilled mushrooms, tomato and toast.

Lunch Made-To-Order after 11am – includes gourmet dishes such as beetroot and feta salad, salmon cakes and pasta slice of the day with side salad and small coffee.

Lunch-To-Go gourmet tartlets and quiches are baked in-store daily, as well as fresh wraps including vegetarian and lite options, savoury pastries and savoury muffins.

All-Day Classics including the full Muffin Break variety of fresh muffins including a Weight Watchers-endorsed range which we’ll soon be extending with a raft of low pro-points products.

Like all Muffin Break products, the dishes featured on the Made-To-Order menu are freshly-prepared on-site daily by our well-trained staff.

QSR Media: How do you think customers will respond to this new development?

Macphail: Our brand reinvigoration strategy for Muffin Break is based on research and more than two decades as one of Australia’s premier bakery-café franchise brands. Our research indicates that our typical customer wants gourmet choices in addition to the products she’s always come to Muffin Break for. We spent a significant period listening to the needs of our customers and the Made-To-Order menu is just one way we’re answering our customers’ calls.

Of course, we may need to modify the menu to suit the market but overall, we think customers will respond positively to the greater variety of premium products at Muffin Break as well as the revamped design of our cafes and general customer experience at Muffin Break.

QSR Media: Will the new menu be launched to other Muffin Break stores?

Macphail: Yes, it will roll-out across the country with other in-line Muffin Break bakery-cafés as they open.

QSR Media: What logistic challenges did the “made-to-order” concept present?

Macphail: We have long-standing relationships with established suppliers so from a supply perspective, the challenge has been relatively easy to overcome. Adequate kitchen space can be challenging which is why the Made-To-Order menu is more suitable to in-line stores as opposed to kiosk-cafés.

The size of the menu in terms of the amount of space it takes-up on the table is another example of a challenge it has presented to us but we’re now confident in the concept and genuinely hope our customers enjoy it!