Add Wendy’s to the list of restaurant chains making a play for Raising Cane’s market.
The Dublin, Ohio-based fast-food chain on Tuesday introduced Chicken Tenders as a permanent menu item. The tenders are made with white-meat chicken and come with a half-dozen sauces: Signature, with black pepper and hot sauce; as well as Sweet Chili, Scorchin’ Hot, Creamy Ranch, Honey BBQ and Honey Mustard.
The introduction itself is no surprise, as Wendy’s itself said it would take such a step back in August.
Wendy’s, like much of the fast-food world, is pushing more into chicken. Beef inflation is creating problems for a number of brands and chicken is the country’s most popular protein right now.
McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wingstop this year have added chicken tenders, strips or fingers. Chicken tenders now appear on 40% of industry menus, according to Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. KFC has gone so far as to develop an entire concept around chicken tenders that it is expanding in the Orlando market.
(Check out our report on the chicken tender boom here.)
Raising Cane’s has a lot to do with it. The fast-casual chain has thrived in recent years with a simple menu built around its chicken fingers. A typical Raising Cane’s location generates $6.5 million in annual revenue. The chain has more than tripled in size since 2019 and last year surpassed KFC to become the nation’s third-largest chicken concept.
“Chicken, obviously, [has] been a very fast-growing protein within QSR,” Wendy’s Interim CEO Ken Cook told analysts in August. He noted that, in test, Wendy’s chicken tenders “performed better than our largest competitor and it performed towards the top of the entire competitive set, including those who specialize in chicken. So we’re really excited about the quality of this offering.”
For Wendy’s, the introduction comes at a crucial time. The chain is looking for a permanent CEO and its same-store sales have stumbled this year, including a 3.6% decline in the second quarter that underperformed both McDonald’s and Burger King.
The company believes a better selection of chicken offerings will help it regain some momentum. “This gives us the ability to innovate off this core menu item going forward, which also gives us a lot more potential to do things differently in that chicken category,” Cook said.
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