After years of fans pleading, McDonald’s may finally be planning on bringing back the Snack Wrap. According to a report by Today, McDonald’s executives spoke to investors on a public conference call last month where they celebrated the menu’s growing reliance on chicken products. They alluded to plans for a “McCrispy Snack Wrap” that would probably fill the niche left empty since the original Snack Wrap was discontinued.
McDonald’s executive Joe Erlinger told investors: “In the U.S. business, we have three really strong chicken brands between McChicken, Chicken McNuggets, and obviously McCrispy. But [with] McCrispy, we’re in the early days, really building that brand and so looking forward. Will we eventually have a crispy tender? Yes. And will that allow us to eventually have a McCrispy Snack Wrap? Yes. But we’re still in the early days of doing that.”
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The Snack Wrap was first introduced by McDonald’s in 2006. As the name implies, it was a smaller menu item meant to be eaten on the go, between meals. At first, it was only available with crispy chicken and ranch sauce, along with lettuce and shredded cheese wrapped in a wheat tortilla. However, later iterations would include grilled chicken and other sauces such as honey mustard, chipotle barbecue or salsa roja.
The Snack Wrap was discontinued in the U.S. in 2016 due to dwindling sales. Some franchises continued to sell them, but in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, McDonald’s mandated menu simplifications for all restaurants, spelling the end for the Snack Wrap here.
Outside the U.S., the Snack Wrap has never lost its popularity. It is still sold at McDonald’s restaurants in Canada, the United Kingdom and some other countries. That is thanks in part to the increased popularity of chicken in some other countries, where beef is not eaten due to religious or cultural reasons. However, according to a report by Business Insider, McDonald’s is seeing an increased focus on chicken in the U.S. as well.
“Today, the size of the company’s chicken business is on par with beef, as the company continues to aggressively expand through billion-dollar equities including McNuggets, McChicken, McCrispy, and McSpicy,” a McDonald’s spokesperson told the outlet. “This includes plans to offer McCrispy in nearly all markets around the world by the end of 2025… These planned innovations and new menu offerings reflect the Company’s ability to test and scale quickly to serve customers.”
