McDonald's is launching new sandwiches next month in an effort to win fast food's chicken war.
On Monday, the company announced three versions of a new chicken sandwich, which will be available nationally on February 24: The Crispy Chicken Sandwich, topped with pickles and served on a potato roll, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, which adds a spicy pepper sauce, and the Deluxe Chicken Sandwich, which comes with lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. McDonald's told investors in November to expect a new chicken sandwich this year.
The new products, along with faster drive-thrus and other changes, could help McDonald's draw more traffic to its restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
Three new chicken sandwiches are launching in February 2021.
Prior to the pandemic, the company was losing customers to fast casual chains and higher-end burger joints. The number of transactions at its US restaurants that have been open for at least 13 months slipped 1.9% in 2019, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That year, McDonald's franchise operators warned that the chain needed a better chicken sandwich to win customers back. "JFK called for a man on the moon," they wrote in a letter that summer. "Our call should be a category leading chicken sandwich."
The burger chain, which already serves chicken nuggets and the McChicken sandwich nationally, has since tested fried chicken sandwiches in regional markets.
And during a November webcast for investors, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald's USA, said that "a much anticipated, delicious, new crispy chicken sandwich" would hit US menus this year.
Chicken is a good bet for McDonald's, he explained.
"Globally, the chicken category is almost twice the size of beef," he said at the time. "It is growing faster and represents a significant opportunity," he said. "Developing a reputation for great chicken represents one of our highest aspirations. We want customers to choose McDonald's for chicken."
Erlinger added that the new sandwich would "jump-start our chicken journey," suggesting more chicken products to come. McDonald's launched Spicy Chicken McNuggets in the fall, its first new McNugget flavor in the United States since the item was introduced to the US menu in 1983.
Chains with a popular chicken sandwich have been rewarded by customers. Popeyes, which saw its new sandwich offering sell out just two weeks after it launched nationally in August 2019, has pointed to the sandwich as one reason that it continued to grow during the pandemic. Chick-fil-A, known for its line of chicken sandwiches, has been growing steadily for years.
Recently, the competition has been heating up. Wendy's rolled out a new version of its chicken sandwich in October. The brand's Classic Chicken Sandwich, made with a fried-chicken filet, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo, replaced the Homestyle Chicken Sandwich, which had been on Wendy's menu for at least a decade. Over the summer, KFC tested a new, premium chicken sandwich called the KFC Chicken Sandwich.
The 30 retailers and restaurant chains that filed for bankruptcy in 2020
Papyrus
The mall staple best known for selling stationery and upscale greeting cards went out of business, resulting in the closure of more than 250 stores across the U.S. and Canada. Papyrus made the announcement in January and blamed an overexpansion of stores, the downturn in brick-and-mortar shopping and its inability to recover fully from the 2008 financial crisis.
Pier 1 Imports
The home goods retailer filed for bankruptcy in February, following years of decline because of online competition and big-box chains. Pier 1, which once had more than 1,000 locations, ultimately closed all of its locations. In July, the brand name was purchased by an investment firm and will relaunch it as an online-only store.
Neiman Marcus
The 113-year-old upscale department store was hit especially hard by the nation working from home. After making its announcement in May, it emerged from bankruptcy in September with billions of dollars less in debt and five fewer stores, including its flashy Hudson Yards stores that opened in New York City in 2019.
Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes
COVID-19 was a brutal blow for all-you-can-eat buffets, especially for this restaurant chain. It announced the closure of all of its 97 U.S. restaurants and liquidated its assets.
Sur La Table
The 50-year-old purveyor of upscale kitchenware filed for bankruptcy, resulting in the closure of roughly half of its 120 U.S. stores. Sur La Table was sold for $90 million August to an investment firm.
Muji USA
The U.S. arm of the Japanese retailer entered bankruptcy and closed a "small number" of its locations. Muji is using the process to emerge with a renewed focus on online sales.
Lord & Taylor
The once-snazzy upscale retailer filed for bankruptcy just a year after it was bought for $75 million. Hopes of keeping some of its stores quickly collapsed with the brand announcing a month later it was shutting all of them down, ending a nearly 200-year run.
Century 21
Beloved by New Yorkers, the department store chain shuttered its 13 locations ending a 60-year-old run. The company blamed the lack of payment on its business interruption insurance as the cause of its demise.
CNN's Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.
