Wendy's Hopes Third Time Is The Charm
By Jonathan Maze, January 27, 2011
Wendy's is the only major hamburger chain that has no semblance of a breakfast program, but not for lack of trying. The Atlanta-based chain has seemed like it's been trying to expand into that daypart forever. In truth, it's tried twice, but Wendy's President David Karam said at the company's investor day this morning that both efforts failed because of a "flawed menu design and ineffective testing." There is a good reason Wendy's is itchy to get into breakfast: Fewer people are eating at QSRs for dinner. Between 2002 and 2009, according to Wendy's, dinner traffic has fallen by 8 percent. By comparison, breakfast has grown 13 percent. Karam suggested that in three years, breakfast could be equal to dinner. As it is, 23 percent of QSR hamburger visits are during the morning hours, representing $13 billion in sales, despite Wendy's "negligible" breakfast efforts. Lack of breakfast is a big reason Wendy's continues to tread water these days.
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