Frozen bakery brand Griddle has kicked off the new year with product launches including French toast.
This marks a first move away from its HFSS-compliant range of wholegrain toaster waffles and coincides with a brand refresh aiming to build what it says is a new retail category: frozen breakfast.
Now under the updated brand name of Griddle Bakery, the company asserts that frozen is all about keeping convenience and freshness without compromising on quality or nutrition.
“I think consumers are really starting to care about UPFs in their diet and the mainstream bakery industry is notorious for stuffing products full of preservatives and emulsifiers,” commented Sophie McGregor, who co-founded the brand with her flatmate Ella Harland in 2019. “We really felt there was a need to prove that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
The new frozen Vanilla Brioche French Toast (rsp: £4.95, 280g) is being launched into Ocado on 3 January. It features thick slices of brioche loaf soaked in a rich vanilla, egg, and cream mix.
Although the indulgent breakfast option cannot offer the brand’s usual HFSS-compliant claim, as seen in across their entire waffles range, it does provide 8g of protein per slice and contains ingredients such as sourdough, free-range eggs, crème fraiche, butter, milk, vanilla aroma, and orange blossom water.
Described as soft in the middle and crispy at the edges, the French toast can be air-fryed or microwaved from frozen in minutes and can be topped with the likes of yoghurt, berries and syrup or with bacon or other savoury items.
Griddle highlighted its development of the new French toast came after seeing that 67% of consumers were looking to re-create the restaurant experience at home [Pinterest Trends UK, 2024], as well as “French toast” being the among the top 5 most searched recipes for families on Tiktok and Pinterest last year.
“Our French Toast is a first of its kind in UK retail,” said co-founder Harland. “We’ve really focused on quality, simple natural ingredients, to create maybe my favourite product yet.”
Meanwhile, Griddle has expanded its waffles line-up with a new Apple & Cinnamon variety (rsp: £2.75, 200g) launching first into The Food Warehouse on 3 January, followed by Ocado. Its Original, Blueberry, and Chop Chip waffles have also secured a Morrisons listing at the start of this year.
More NPD is said to be on its way in 2026 and, with over 1,100 new distribution points landing in Q1 alone, the company is set for continued growth. Last June, it raised £500k in its second funding round to help scale operations and appointed former St Pierre Groupe MD David Wagstaff and marketing director Megan Harrison to its board. Griddle had also joined the Tesco Accelerator Programme along with regenerative flour brand Wildfarmed back in March.
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