Heinz and Greggs Throw a 'Brinner' Party to Make Breakfast the New Dinner
TL;DR: Heinz and Greggs have teamed up on an exclusive 'Brinner' (breakfast-for-dinner) party, tapping a growing cultural trend as Greggs backs breakfast with a reported £1m campaign push and a run of free-breakfast offers.
Breakfast-for-dinner used to be a guilty student habit. In 2026 it is a marketing opportunity — and two of Britain's most recognisable food brands have jumped on it together.
Heinz and Greggs have joined forces to celebrate 'brinner', the breakfast-at-dinnertime trend, with an exclusive party and a wider push to own the most important meal of the day.
Two heritage brands, one cultural moment
The collaboration pairs Heinz's breakfast credentials with Greggs' mass-market reach, serving breakfast items at dinnertime and leaning into the playful 'brinner' idea doing the rounds on social.
It sits alongside a broader Greggs breakfast drive — reported at around £1m — and a string of free-breakfast and meal-deal offers designed to build the daypart. Breakfast is one of the few occasions where frequency can be nudged upward, which makes it strategically valuable.
Why daypart marketing works
Rather than invent a new product, the brands are expanding when an existing one gets eaten. That is a quietly powerful growth lever: you are not fighting for a bigger share of breakfast, you are adding a whole new occasion.
Riding a pre-existing social trend ('brinner') also means the brands are joining a conversation customers are already having, rather than starting one from scratch — cheaper attention, and more authentic.
What smaller brands can borrow
You do not need two national brands to copy the playbook. Ask when else your product could reasonably be used, then give people a nudge and a reason to try it at that new moment.
A café selling pastries at breakfast can sell them as an afternoon treat; a cleaning product sold for spring can be reframed for autumn. Finding a new occasion is often easier than finding a new customer.
Quick FAQ
What is the Heinz and Greggs 'Brinner' collaboration?
It is a joint activation celebrating 'brinner' — breakfast eaten at dinnertime — with exclusive party events and a push behind Greggs' breakfast range.
Why are brands targeting breakfast?
Breakfast is a high-frequency daypart where brands can grow by adding new occasions for existing products rather than competing for the same meal.
The smartest growth often isn't a new product — it's a new occasion. Heinz and Greggs didn't invent anything; they gave people permission to eat breakfast at 7pm. Ask when else your product could be used, and you've found demand you already had. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Growing a brand is often about expanding occasions, not inventing products — give customers a new reason and time to buy.
What's the one new occasion your product could own that you've never actively marketed?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Campaign, Yorkshire Evening Post, bakeryinfo.co.uk, DesignMyNight.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
