Chicken Lickin!
Thereās a food fight in markets! Investors in McDonaldās and Restaurant Brands are engaged in one toasty commercial contest. The rules are simple; the best chicken sandwich wins! Here are the standings, and hereās how we got here!
The humble hamburger, of course, remains the fallback menu entry of most diners. However, club sandwiches are disappearing off plates at record speeds. We’re talking four billion American servings last year, nine per customer, producing tens of billions in total sales for investors, and an awful lot of calories to run off. PrivCo Chick-Fil-A set the trend in motion and has become the second-biggest fast-food joint in the States because of its chicken delights. However, it’s public market players who have blown this market up!
Last year, Restaurant Brands-owned chain Popeyes challenged Chick-Fil-Aās flagship luncheon with its own chicken sandwich. It was no big deal until August, when Chick-Fil-A tweeted a bold marketing dig at the Louisiana joint. The āyāall good?ā put down that followed went viral, though, and Popeyes instantly endeared itself to a public (which all of a sudden was very hungry for chicken sandwiches!). Industry-wide sandwich sales were goosed, the menu item all gone within two weeks at Popeyes branches alone.
McDonaldās franchisees saw their leading position in fast-food being threatened and pushed for the now-famous Crispy Chicken Sandwich. Tested in July and released for real in December, the chicken sandwich fad war is now a three-horse race. With billions of dollars at stake, it’s worth winning though. Tribal fans havenāt eased off on the sandwiches in 2020. Hence, investors remain glued to social media for updates. Pencil in the 29th of January for McDonald’s quarterly sit-rep, and the 10th of February for when Restaurant Brands International weighs in with its numbers!
