Dive Brief:

• Taco Bell debuted a new Toasted Breakfast Burrito menu with three new items on Thursday for participating restaurants nationwide, according to a press release emailed to Restaurant Dive. 
• The menu offers a Cheesy Toasted Breakfast Burrito made with eggs, nacho cheese and sausage; the Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito with a double serving of scrambled eggs, three-cheese blend, potato bites, pico de gallo and either bacon or sausage; and a Hash Brown Toasted Breakfast Burrito with bacon or sausage, eggs, three-cheese blend and a hash brown.
• The Hash Brown Toasted Breakfast Burrito was originally tested in Nashville, Tennessee in 2019, and it quickly grew in popularity.

Dive Insight:

Taco Bell is the latest QSR chain to release breakfast items as competition over the daypart continues to heat up. The three burritos will be permanent additions to nationwide menus, a company spokesperson told Restaurant Dive in an email. 

The QSR chain has been keen on offering unique menu items, and earlier this week rolled out its Triplelupa, which is three connected Chalupas, and brought back its popular Nacho Fries in January. These menu items are particularly beneficial to sales growth. In Q4 2019, the chain introduced a Toasted Cheddar Chalupa and generated a sales mix of 10%, David Gibbs, Yum Brands’ CEO, told investors during the company's February earnings call. 

Breakfast is the only daypart growing year-over-year, and demand increases for convenient breakfast options, Taco Bell will only see more competition in the space. McDonald's added Chicken McGriddles and McChicken Biscuits to its breakfast menu in January and Wendy's launched its breakfast menu in March. Panera also added a coffee subscription program in February, less than a year after it put breakfast wraps on its menu. 

Taco Bell's breakfast burritos will be particularly competitive for the growing demographic of on-the-go consumers, which QSRs are trying to capture through the addition of breakfast sandwiches. Given the fact Taco Bell has been growing same-store sales for eight consecutive years, according to Gibbs, it's in a strong position to continue sales momentum, especially within the breakfast daypart.