It looks like a battle is brewing in the fast food henhouse. McDonalds (NYSE: MCD), eager to take advantage of the recent popularity of crispy chicken sandwiches, is launching three new products in the category in the very near future. The company confirmed to Reuters today that it will present three variants of its existing chicken sandwich – classic, deluxe and spicy – on February 24.
These new offerings include a chicken fillet with white meat served on a buttered roll. They will come with crushed sliced pickles.
The current classic McDonald’s chicken sandwich, which can move down the ranks. Image source: McDonald’s.
Bets on the chicken game increased in 2019, when the Popeyes chain, owned by rival McDonald’s Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR), launched its first chicken sandwich with much fanfare. Customers bought it and it became one of the hot fast food items that year. The foundations of Restaurant Brands International have benefited greatly from its popularity.
The strength of the items on the chicken fast-food menu has endured, even with the severe drop in service to restaurants due to the coronavirus pandemic, not to mention the supply restrictions that this has generated.
If successful, the three variants of the chicken sandwich could spur McDonald’s to develop new poultry-based offerings. Last November, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, pondered that his sandwich could serve as a basis for what he called a “chicken platform”.
“Our chicken-only competitors here and abroad have strong brand value and credibility,” he told Reuters. “Developing a reputation for excellent chicken represents one of our greatest aspirations.”
Investors may consider this change to be a case of too little, too late, since it takes place more than a year after Popeyes’s flashy debut. McDonald’s shares fell more than 2% after today’s announcement, a drop more steeply than the 1.5% suffered by the S&P 500 index.