The days when most households enjoyed large, leisurely breakfasts are becoming relics of the past.

In an era where consumer behavior now is frequently characterized by an emphasis on speed and convenience, many family members—including office workers, stay-at-home moms and even students—are abandoning sit-down meals and seeking foods that are geared to their “on-the-go” lifestyles.

That trend is perhaps most evident in the merchandising of breakfast meats. Vendors are flooding the market with fully cooked proteins that are intended to function as ingredients in ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat meals.

Many of the products also are being positioned as nutritious, tasty and premium meats that enable retailers to compete with fast-food outlets—such as McDonald’s and its Egg McMuffin—for breakfast customers, while also providing consumers with a hearty morning meal.

Such items could help to propel a flat breakfast meat sector. Sales for the 52 weeks ending 11/04/07 totaled $2.93 billion, a decline of 0.46 percent from the year-earlier period, according to Chicago-based Information Resources Inc.’s Infoscan Reviews.

Unit sales totaled 957.7 million, a drop of 4.44 percent, Information Resources reports. Figures are from activity in supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandise outlets, excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“Shopper tastes are becoming more sophisticated and consumers are demanding healthier, better-quality breakfast meats,” notes Reggie Moore, director of marketing for Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Foods Inc.’s Hebrew National brand.

ConAgra is rolling out Hebrew National Breakfast Sausage, which the company claims is the first 100-percent pure kosher beef breakfast sausage being sold in supermarkets.

The fully cooked, seasoned links are available in three varieties, Original, Maple and Reduced Fat, with the latter containing 25-percent less fat that the Original product. Packages include 10 links with a suggested retail price of $3.79.

The line is Hebrew National’s first venture into the breakfast sausage category, and Moore says it is the only refrigerated beef product in a sector that is dominated by pork.

He states that the sausages require minimal preparation and are aimed at persons with busy schedules.

Still, he adds that merchandisers face the challenge of finding room for newer products within stores’ secondary display cases.

“Fully cooked breakfast meats must compete for retail space with both uncooked meats and holiday-specific items, such as hams and turkeys,” Moore notes.

Nancy Cowen, director of marketing—food products, for Columbus, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms Inc., a leading supplier of refrigerated breakfast sausage, agrees that limited shelf space is a key sales impediment.

“There is only so much room in a case, which is why retailers need to focus on merchandising the top-selling items and partner with manufacturers that can assist them with promotions and provide aggressive product marketing,” she says.

Two of Bob Evans’ newest breakfast meats—Express Fully Cooked Sausage Patties and Express Fully Cooked Bacon—are designed to capitalize on shopper interest in quick meal solutions, she states.

“Consumers have limited time and are willing to pay more for convenience,” Cowen notes. “But it is essential that the products also taste good.”

The Sausage Patties are available in an Original flavor and sold in eight-ounce packages; fully cooked Hickory Smoked Bacon is available in 2.1-ounce containers.

Bob Evans also offers eight-ounce packages of fully cooked Sausage Links in Original, Maple and Light varieties. In addition, the vendor is marketing a line of Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches that are sold under the Bob Evans and Owens brands.

Cowen adds that the fully cooked products are aimed at such segments as “dashboard diners”—time-starved multi-taskers who prefer quick meals while driving—and couples in dual income households who don’t have time to cook breakfast but still want to provide nutritious and portable meals for their children.

Indeed, Kevin McTigue, brand manager for Downers Grove, Ill.-based Sara Lee Corp.’s Jimmy Dean brand of breakfast meats, says convenience items are becoming increasingly popular as more consumers view proteins as a greater source of long-lasting energy than sugared cereals, waffles and other carbohydrates.

He says annual sales increases for Jimmy Dean frozen breakfast meats have been in the double digits for the last three years.

“Many consumers prefer meals that they can prepare in three minutes with no cleanup and are looking for alternatives to carbohydrate breakfasts that can leave them feeling hungry before lunch.”

Jimmy Dean’s newer offerings include Breakfast Bowls—eight-ounce microwavable meals in such varieties as Eggs, Potatoes, Sausage & Cheddar Cheese; Pancake and Sausage Links; Egg, Potato and Ham; and Eggs, Potatoes, Bacon and Cheddar Cheese. The items have a suggested retail price of $2.99.

The company this year also rolled out 12-ounce packages of Original Premium Bacon, and D-lights—packages containing four fully cooked breakfast sandwiches which the company claims has one-third fewer calories and less than half the fat of the leading breakfast sausage.

Launched in July, D-lights varieties include Canadian Bacon on a Honey Wheat Muffin with Egg White and Cheese; Black Forest Ham on a Whole Grain Muffin with Egg White and Swiss Cheese; and Turkey Sausage on a Whole Grain Muffin with Egg White and Cheese. The products have a suggested retail price of $6.99.

McTigue says the D-lights sandwich line is Jimmy Dean’s first foray into offering “better –for-you” options and agrees that the items must be flavorful for shopper acceptance.

Breakfast Meat Sales—Refrigerated Bacon
Brand	Dollar sales	Percent Change vs. Year Ago	Unit sales	Percent Change vs. Year ago
Category	$2,051,448,00	-0.21	629,458,700	-5.26
Private Label	$420,867,500	1.31	141,221,500	-3.79
Oscar Mayer	$419,850,200	4.51	107,722,400	0.87
Hormel Black Label	$130,231,600	-1.63	35,891,960	-6.49
Farmland	$71,821,260	5.79	21,824,650	0.99
Bar-S	$66,572,530	-1.37	25,245,610	-4.78
Hormel	$64,096,820	-1.24	15,138,170	-3.84
Wright	$62,596,710	1.77	9,158,557	-2.26
Smithfield	$61,869,530	9.45	20,070,710	3.40
Gwaltney	$55,583,400	-3.44	19,349,440	-10.31
Louis Rich	$55,161,300	0.59	18,524,090	-0.34
Tyson	$47,671,090	-3.31	14,973,200	-7.38
Farmer John	$39,929,850	1.25	10,335,670	-2.45
John Morrell	$38,451,500	-6.64	13,781,030	-10.04
Plumrose	$34,958,040	-2.07	11,719,790	-6.98
Sugardale	$25,667,530	-6.61	8,519,892	-11.31
Source: Infoscan Reviews, Information Resources Inc. Sales figures are for the 52-week period ending 11/4/07 from supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandise outlets excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“The better-for-you trend has ever-increasing momentum, but time and again we’ve seen that consumers don’t want to trade on taste,” he states. “It doesn’t matter how good a product is for the consumer. If it doesn’t deliver on taste it won’t sell.”

Jimmy Dean ready-to-heat meals are designed to compliment—rather than compete—with breakfast products being sold in fast-food outlets, McTigue adds. He notes that consumers pay more attention to the entire breakfast sandwich category each time a take-out chain launches a new item.

“The customer segments for supermarket and fast-food outlets often are different,” he states. “Families tend to buy breakfast meats in supermarkets, while younger single men drive volume in the quick-service restaurants.”

He adds that Jimmy Dean is supporting its breakfast lines with television, print and on-line advertising, and such in-store tools as shelf talkers and on-pack coupons.

Jeanne Olson, director of market research and innovation for leading poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Pittsburg, Texas, says there is an opportunity for suppliers to launch new “better for you” breakfast products in order to better attract the vast pool of potential customers to the category. She notes that the majority of Americans skip breakfast altogether or purchase food-to-go from quick-service restaurants.

Pilgrim’s Pride is entering the breakfast meat sector in January by launching its Start Well line of chicken-based breakfast sandwiches. Varieties include Sausage, Omega 3 Egg and Cheese on an English Muffin; Breakfast Wrap with Smoked Chicken Breast, Omega 3 Eggs, Cheese, Green Pepper and Onion on a Whole Wheat Tortilla; Southern Style Biscuit with a Chicken Breast Patty; and Southern Style Biscuit with a Chicken Sausage Patty.

Olson says all the sandwiches are free of trans fat and the products have 30-percent-to-50-percent less fat than the leading breakfast sandwich, and 30-percent fewer calories.

Breakfast Meat Sales—Sausage/Ham
Brand	Dollar sales	Percent Change vs. Year Ago	Unit sales	Percent Change vs. Year ago
Category	$880,473,300	-1.04	328,334,000	-2.81
Jimmy Dean	$198,866,600	23.36	67,408,210	22.39
Bob Evans	$115,095,600	-2.31	34,545,090	-1.37
Private Label	$73,508,130	0.90	31,489,680	0.02
Johnsonville	$70,872,270	6.14	21,842,080	7.15
Tennessee Pride	$45,475,420	-0.54	16,345,930	-2.31
Farmer John	$28,330,530	-11.76	20,229,280	-15.32
Owens	$25,015,110	-3.31	8,741,329	-7.22
Purnell	$20,172,300	9.47	5,412,961	13.87
Hormel Little Sizzler	$19,151,960	-9.59	13,507,700	-11.93
Taylor	$18,625,380	0.23	7,499,903	-1.49
Hatfield	$17,811,360	1.07	7,253,086	-4.50
The Turkey Store	$15,004,170	7.63	4,737,192	3.59
Farmland	$13,466,510	-5.63	8,492,338	-9.54
Williams	$11,162,780	-4.24	3,471,116	-9.32
Cumberland Gap	$9,967,635	3.55	2,540,131	3.61
Source: Infoscan Reviews, Information Resources Inc. Sales figures are for the 52-week period ending 11/4/07 from supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandise outlets excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Dan Emery, Pilgrim’s Pride vice president of marketing, adds that the Start Well sandwiches are designed to enable supermarkets to better compete with quick-service restaurants for breakfast business.

He claims it is the first time Omega 3 Eggs have been used for a mass-market breakfast sandwich. Omega 3 is a fatty acid found in foods which has been found to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke while helping to reduce symptoms of hypertension, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), joint pain and other rheumatoid problems, as well as certain skin ailments.

Because some consumers—as a result of taste concerns—are hesitant to purchase “better-for-you” items, Olson says it is prudent for retailers to support in-store sampling of the products.

“Most shoppers have tried ‘better-for-you’ foods in the past but were disappointed with the flavor,” she notes. As a result, Olson says Pilgrim’s Pride focused on developing a breakfast sandwich that was “delicious as well as nutritious.”

Also emphasizing healthier breakfast foods is Bridgewater, N.J.-based Applegate Farms, whose newest breakfast items—fully cooked Chicken & Maple and Chicken & Sage Sausages—were developed without the use of antibiotics, hormones, additives and fillers.

“Consumers are more educated about nutrition,” notes Stephen McDonnell, Applegate Farms chief executive officer. “They know that a high-protein breakfast curbs their appetite throughout the morning. They also are conscious about fat and are seeking breakfast meats that are made with poultry instead of pork.”

He adds that product demonstrations are an effective means of highlighting the multiple uses of the proteins.

“Retailers can sell more products by showing consumers how they can add fresh ingredients to ready-to-eat breakfast meats for quick and easy ‘homemade’ meals that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner,” McDonnell says. “The meats are easily incorporated into breakfast burritos and sandwiches, which are the new breakfast trends. Breakfast is no longer a sit-down meal.”

This growing prevalence—and popularity—of more varieties of breakfast meats is resulting in the merchandising by retailers of both private-label and supplier-branded selections.

Oklahoma City-based producer Lopez Foods Inc., for instance, which supports a multitude of private-label programs—including those of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kroger Corp.—also merchandises pre-cooked sausage under its own Country Cousin brand.

The company offers several flavors of frozen Pork Sausage Patties, including Original, Maple and Spicy, as well as a Beef Sausage Patty. Products are available in two-pound bags, as well as a six-patty case of all-natural pork sausage.

Lopez Foods also is testing additional flavors and is considering marketing refrigerated items, notes Ed Sanchez, president and chief executive officer.

He says Lopez’s breakfast meat segment has grown 3 percent to 5 percent annually over the last few years.

“Precooked sausage patties are becoming more popular because they are easy to prepare and flavorful,” he adds.