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It looks like a battle is brewing in the fast food coop. Mcdonalds (NYSE: MCD), keen to take advantage of the recent popularity of crispy chicken sandwiches, is launching three new products in the category very soon. The company today confirmed to Reuters that it will introduce three variations of its existing chicken sandwich – classic, deluxe and spicy – on February 24.
These new offerings include a white meat chicken fillet served on a buttered potato roll. They will come with crumpled pickles.
McDonald’s current classic chicken sandwich, which can go down in the pecking order. Image source: McDonald’s.
The stakes of the chicken game were raised in 2019 when the chain Popeyes, owned by rival McDonald’s Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR), launched its very first chicken sandwich with great fanfare. Dinners broke it, and it’s become one of this year’s hot fast food dishes. Restaurant Brands International’s fundamentals have benefited greatly from its popularity.
The strength of chicken fast food has endured, even with the severe decline in restaurant attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic, not to mention the supply constraints it created.
If successful, the three variations of the chicken sandwich could prompt McDonald’s to develop new poultry-based offerings. Last November Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, thought his sandwich could serve as the basis for what he called a “chicken platform.”
“Our chicken-only competitors here and abroad have strong brand value and strong credibility,” he said at the time by Reuters. “Developing a reputation for good chicken is one of our biggest aspirations.”
Investors might consider the move too little, too late, as it comes more than a year after Popeyes’ splashy debut. McDonald’s shares fell more than 2% on today’s announcement, a larger drop than the 1.5% suffered by the S&P 500 index.
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