McDonald's is doubling down in its efforts to win the fast-food chicken war by adding three new items to its menu starting next month.
The company said Tuesday that it will be releasing three new versions of its popular chicken sandwich. The items will be made available throughout the U.S. starting on Feb. 24, McDonald's said.
The new chicken sandwiches are the Crispy Chicken Sandwich with pickles and a potato roll, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich with spicy pepper sauce, and the Deluxe Chicken Sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo.
McDonald's previously hinted at the new chicken-based offerings late last year during a meeting with investors. The company said that the new offerings along with upgrades to its drive-through systems should help it draw in more customers in the coming months.
In its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company reported a 1.9% drop in total transactions for the past 12 months. Franchise operators suggested that the company needs to increase its chicken-based offerings to win back customers. A letter to the company send by operators particularly requested for McDonald's to create a better chicken sandwich.
During the company's last earnings call with investors, the president of McDonald's USA, Joe Erlinger, said that chicken will be a good bet.
"Globally, the chicken category is almost twice the size of beef. It is growing faster and represents a significant opportunity," Erlinger said during the webcast meeting.
Unlike McDonald's, fast food restaurants that serve updated chicken sandwiches have reported increased sales during the pandemic. Popeyes, which started to offer chicken sandwiches in August 2019, said that the product was one of the reasons for its continued growth during the crisis. Chick-fil-A also attributed its continued growth to its line of chicken sandwiches.
McDonald's main competitors have also started to revamp their chicken-based offerings, starting a so-called chicken war. Last year, Wendy's rolled out a new version of its chicken sandwich called the Classic Chicken Sandwich. KFC also launched a new premium chicken sandwich called the KFC Chicken Sandwich.
McDonald's currently serves multiple chicken products such as fried chicken and chicken nuggets but chicken sandwiches are only available in select regional markets. Late last year, McDonald's launched the Spicy Chicken McNugget - the first McNugget flavor launched in the U.S. since 1983.
