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On Monday, the company announced three versions of a new chicken sandwich, which will be available nationwide on February 24: the crispy chicken sandwich, topped with pickles and served on a potato roll, the spicy chicken sandwich, which adds a spicy pepper sauce, and the deluxe chicken sandwich, which comes with lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise. McDonald’s told investors in November to expect a new chicken sandwich this year.
The new products, along with the faster drive-thru and other changes, could help McDonald’s drive more traffic to its restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
Before the pandemic, the company was losing customers to high-end fast food chains and hamburger restaurants. The number of transactions at its U.S. restaurants that had been open for at least 13 months fell 1.9% in 2019, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That year, McDonald’s franchisees warned the chain needed a better chicken sandwich to win back customers. “JFK called a man to the moon,” they wrote in a letter that summer. “Our call should be top notch chicken sandwich.
And during a November investor webcast, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said “a new, crispy, delicious and highly anticipated chicken sandwich” is coming to the United States. menus this year.
Chicken is a good bet for McDonald’s, he explained.
“Globally, the category of chicken is almost twice the size of beef,” he said at the time. “It is growing faster and represents a significant opportunity,” he said. “Developing a reputation for excellent chicken is one of our biggest aspirations. We want customers to choose McDonald’s for chicken.”
Erlinger added that the new sandwich will “jumpstart our chicken journey,” suggesting more chicken products to come. McDonald’s launched Spicy Chicken McNuggets in the fall, its first new McNugget flavor in the United States since the item was introduced to the American menu in 1983.
Chains with a popular chicken sandwich were awarded by customers. Popeyes, who saw its new sandwich offering sell out just two weeks after its nationwide launch in August 2019, said the sandwich was one of the reasons it continued to grow during the pandemic. Chick-fil-A, known for its line of chicken sandwiches, has been growing steadily for years.
Recently, the competition has intensified. Wendy’s launched a new version of its chicken sandwich in October. The brand’s classic chicken sandwich of fried chicken fillet, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayonnaise replaced the house-style chicken sandwich, which has been on Wendy’s menu ever since. at least a decade. Over the summer, KFC tested a new premium chicken sandwich called KFC Chicken Sandwich.
– CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.
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