Dive Brief:
- Bite Squad, which was acquired by Waitr in December, started delivering breakfast items this week from 32 participating restaurants in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market, its second breakfast delivery market behind Gainesville, Florida. The morning service starts at 8 a.m., according to the StarTribune.
- Adding breakfast delivery is part of its larger growth strategy, which includes adding new cities as well as extending services in its existing cities, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
- More breakfast delivery markets are already in the works and are expected to be live within the next three months.
Dive Insight:
The Gainesville breakfast delivery test went well enough for Bite Squad to gain enough confidence to extend the service into a new metro area, and there is clearly an opportunity for delivery in the morning.
Although 78% of breakfasts are prepared or eaten at home, in-home breakfasts declined by eight meals per capita from 2015 to 2018, according to NPD Group. Two breakfast meals per capita shifted to foodservice during that time. Simultaneously, just 13% of breakfast opportunities are satisfied by foodservice, and 9% of breakfasts missed or skipped, Nation's Restaurant News reports.
The key to hit on that opportunity isn't just to offer breakfast, but to offer it at the utmost convenience.
"Restaurants are benefiting from on-the-go breakfasts. It's not more people eating breakfast, it's more restaurants making breakfast easier," David Portalatin, NPD vice president and food industry advisor, told Nation's Restaurant News in February.
Demand here makes sense considering breakfast is the only daypart that is actually growing in the restaurant segment, accounting for 21% of all traffic in 2018, up from 19% in 2013, according to NPD/Crest data. Breakfast delivery also offers a major solution — feeding busier consumers who seem to have less time than ever. Perhaps because of this, Panera, which launched breakfast delivery in November and expanded its morning menu this week, has seen breakfast delivery grow by over 250%.
"Delivery is our largest growth driver and within delivery, breakfast delivery is our largest growth driver," Panera's chief growth and strategy officer Dan Wegiel told Restaurant Dive earlier this week.
Of course, Bite Squad and Panera aren't alone in this offering. Delivery is available at breakfast staple IHOP 24/7 on Grubhub, for example. Uber Eats started providing breakfast delivery in February 2017, starting at 7 a.m. seven days a week. Uber Eats also delivers McDonald's All Day Breakfast as the chain's delivery partner. And, Bite Squad's new parent company Waitr touts its breakfast delivery availability in its app store description.
As the demand for both breakfast and delivery continues to increase, there's no reason to believe the demand for breakfast delivery won't follow a similar trajectory.
