Wendy's New French Fries a 'Huge Success'

Want some fries with that?

At Wendy's the answer increasingly seems to be yes, thanks to the chain replacing its thin and soggy french fries with a crisper, skin-on version flavored with sea salt. The fast feeder will keep the pressure on with a campaign launching this week from Kaplan Thaler Group. 

Since the new fry hit the menu last November, orders with fries rose almost 10% per 100 transactions, "almost equal to McDonald's,"Roland Smith, president-CEO of Wendy's/Arby's Group, said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call earlier this month. 

"Our new-fry launch was a huge success,"he concluded. "It's not often that companies like ours take a core product like fries and actually make a significant change and have that change be as positive as it was." 

 

Detail of Wendy's logo

For that reason, Wendy's took no chances. According to Kantar, in December -- the first full month the fries were available -- it spent nearly 79%, or $17.7 million, of its measured-media spend pushing fries, compared to spending of $26.9 million for all products in December 2009. 

During that launch month alone, fry units were up 17%, Mr. Smith said. 

The figures look more impressive considering the overall amount of fry units sold industry-wide has been in a slow decline over the past few years. 

The number of fries sold at quick-service restaurants in the U.S. fell 1% in 2010;2% in 2009;2% in 2008 and 2% in 2007, according to NPD Group.