Burger King Brings in Business By Offering Burgers for Breakfast
By DEVON SPURGEON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
CHICAGO -- With grease on his chin, Seth Kligerman, a 26-year-old medical student, is downing his second double cheeseburger -- and it isn't even 8 a.m.
He dismisses bagels and muffins as "wimpy." Cereal? He's hungry again by 10 a.m. "If I really need to get through the day, I eat a burger for breakfast," he says between bites at the Billy Goat Tavern here one recent morning.
Mr. Kligerman is part of an unusual breed of customer that some restaurants are trying to court: the breakfast burger eater. The group includes people who work unusual hours -- such as night-shift factory workers -- and may crave dinner-type fare when their workday ends in the morning. In Mr. Kligerman's line of work, meals -- like work hours -- can be erratic. "You're never guaranteed a meal when you work at a hospital," he says.
In Chicago, 275 Burger Kings now offer burgers for breakfast, rather than waiting until 10:30 a.m., when the menu typically is switched over to lunch fare. Results have been impressive: Breakfast sales at those restaurants have increased 4% to 7% since they started offering early morning burgers in 1997. And with a new television and print advertising push behind them, burgers now make up 35% to 40% of all morning sales.
A Burger King spokesman wouldn't comment on whether the concept is likely to go national, except to say that the headquarters staff in Miami is watching the experiment and finds it encouraging.
Burger King, a unit of Diageo PLC of Britain, could stand a breakfast boost to help it compete against McDonald's Corp., the leader in fast-food breakfast. The average McDonald's sells $1.7 million (1.9 million euros) of food each year, 24% of that at breakfast. The average Burger King restaurant sells $1.1 million of food yearly, with just 13% to 14% at breakfast.
"Breakfast is an underperformer for Burger King," says Peter Oakes, an equity analyst for Merrill Lynch. "Offering Whoppers at that hour can possibly help them ring the cash register."
In addition, "the check average is much higher for the burger consumer than for the breakfast consumer," says Stewart Baily, vice president of operations at Ameriking, a Burger King franchisee in Chicago.
McDonald's occasionally serves burgers for breakfast at a small number of restaurants near heavily industrial areas; otherwise, they aren't available until between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Walt Riker, a spokesman for the chain, says it has no plans to add burgers to the breakfast menu nationwide because the current menu is already successful. "We do a monster business on breakfast," Mr. Riker says.
Wendy's Inc., the third-largest burger chain in the U.S., doesn't generally offer a breakfast menu, but says about 200 of its restaurants have chosen to offer hash browns and breakfast sandwiches in the morning.
Some customers at Chicago Burger Kings are hoping that breakfast burgers are here to stay. "I am pumping all day and sweating -- I need a hearty meal," says 25-year-old Kevin Kerr, a construction worker who, on his way to work one recent morning, ordered a junior Whopper and a filet of fish sandwich, another lunch item now available for breakfast.
Other customers are buying burgers just to add variety. "I just get sick of doughnuts and stuff," says Matt O'Brien, an emergency medical technician who ordered a Whopper Extreme, loaded with bacon, around 9 a.m. recently -- three hours into his shift.
At least one food purveyor always has been sensitive to early-hour burger yearnings. White Castle, a closely held burger chain, has been selling burgers for breakfast since 1921. "We just sell an exceptional amount of hamburgers for breakfast," says Jamie Richardson, marketing director for White Castle System Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, whose restaurants are open 24 hours a day.
Some mom-and-pop restaurants also heat up the burger grill early. At Herbo's in Casper, Wyoming, waitress Ginger Nelson starts serving up burgers and other hot sandwiches at 5 a.m. "We get a lot of people that just don't like breakfast," she says.
Write to Devon Spurgeon at devon.spurgeon@wsj.com |
