When Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen introduced its new chicken sandwich in August, it proved to far more popular than the chain or its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, anticipated.
The demand for the sandwich was so high that the chain ran out of inventories and had to notify customers that it had ran out its supplies for the sandwich. However, the chain also said the sandwich would be coming back.
RBI said along with the return of the sandwich should be more employees, since workers at the restaurants were exhausted while trying to keep up with the demand.
“Our franchisees have worked to increase staffing,” RBI said in a statement to Bloomberg. “We have been working diligently to bring the sandwich back to our restaurants soon, as we know our guests are anxiously anticipating its return.”
While RBI didn’t offer a specific date regarding when the sandwich would return, Sun Holdings, which operates about 150 Popeyes locations in Texas, Oklahoma and Florida, told the news agency that it would offer the sandwich again in November. Sun Holdings’ CEO, Guillermo Perales, said his company’s restaurants are hiring an additional 400 employees to keep up with the demand, and that it might dedicate as many as two people per restaurant just to make the popular chicken sandwiches.
Popeye’s new sandwich became an immediate social media sensation, as the chain touted it as superior to the sandwiches offered by rival chicken chain Chick-fil-A. A chicken sandwich feud among quick service restaurants soon followed, with other chains such as Wendy’s, Whataburger and McDonald’s promoting their chicken sandwiches and other chicken offerings.
Insights on the Popeyes’ sandwich impact on RBI’s financial performance might be reflected as RBI, which is also the parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons, will report its results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2019 on October 28.
