McDonald’s franchisees believe the fast food chain does not presently have an offering that demonstrates “the power of chicken,” and the introduction of a premium chicken sandwich could change that.
In doing so, the franchisees hope McDonald’s will do a better job of fending off growing competition from rival company Chick-fil-A.
The board of the National Owners Association (NOA), a group of franchisees that formed about a year ago, sent an email to its members, saying, “A chicken sandwich should be our top priority,” reported CNBC.
McDonald’s does offer chicken products in the form of its Chicken McNuggets and the McChicken sandwich. While the NOA board said those are good products, they do not “demonstrate the power of chicken,” and do not compete in the premium chicken sandwich category.
Identifying Chick-fil-A as an industry leader in serving premium chicken sandwich, the NOA board further cautioned about the continued growth of Chick-fil-A.
“You may not have Chick-fil-As in your market or to the degree they have them in the southeast, but they are coming,” the board wrote. “And they don’t discount.”
Chick-fil-A is headquartered in College Park, Georgia, and has an estimated 2,363 locations, according to Wikipedia.
In its email, NOA board members also expressed concerns about a business practice that isn’t necessarily attracting customers or helping the company’s bottom line: the dollar drinks.
McDonald’s, in 2018, partnered with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to found and launch SMART Broiler, a research initiative offering $4 million for research supporting the development and commercialization of automated monitoring tools that quantitatively assess key animal welfare indicators in broiler chickens.
Also in 2018, McDonald’s USA reported progress in its effort to convert to cage-free eggs, stating it was one-third of the way to switching its entire egg supply to cage free.
