MILFORD, Conn. - Subway has deemed its breakfast menu a success after four months, Nation??s Restaurant News reports. The sandwich chain plans to expand the morning menu with limited-time items and more coffee or espresso-type beverages.

Since debuting breakfast four months ago, Subway has seen higher sales across its restaurants. "We??re very excited that our initial results show it is outperforming even our original expectations," said Larry Varvella, research and development project leader for the chain. "Those original expectations were based on our franchise owners breaking even at the least. Of course we fully realized that to be a major player [at breakfast] we needed a long-term commitment. We figured that would be a three-to-six-month period. The last thing we wanted was for our owners not to be profitable."

Breakfast is served at more than 25,000 North American Subway locations. With the morning daypart predicted to soar 13 percent through 2014, according to Mintel Research, Subway wanted to capitalize on this trend.

Franchisees are happy with the addition of breakfast, too. "The franchisees are happy and the customers are buying the product," said Varvella. "In the past the menu mix was higher in non-breakfast items, but now we??re seeing equal amounts [in sales] of about 50 percent breakfast and non-breakfast, which, again, is ahead of projections."

Subway offers its full menu starting at 7 a.m., which has increased sales of non-breakfast foods, too. "We??re selling a lot of standard items along with breakfast items. We??re really offering a full menu from 7 a.m. on. Why wait in line at lunch if you??re already there in the morning? I think it??s great. We don??t care what we sell; we just know we??re selling more," said Alan Warmund, president of Subway Development of Washington.

Check out "Breakfast Brawl" in the June issue of NACS Magazine for tips on how convenience stores can rope in the breakfast crowd.