Wendy's Giving Away Free Breakfast Sandwiches

To help hype its brand-new breakfast menu, Wendy's is giving away one of its new menu items -- but [...]

To help hype its brand-new breakfast menu, Wendy's is giving away one of its new menu items -- but there's a catch. As of Monday, the fast-food chain, notorious for its square-shaped burger patties, is offering a free Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit to anyone who places an order on their official app, reports CNN. Customers can only score the free sandwich once, but they have until April 6 to take advantage of the offer.

The move comes as the same day McDonald's offered up free Egg McMuffins for the newly sanctioned "National Egg McMuffin Day." In a press release, Wendy's chided the Golden Arches, writing "some others in the category have let breakfast consumers down by offering breakfast sandwiches with frozen, folded eggs and pre-cooked bacon."

The fact that Wendy's is directing its customers to the app comes as a deliberate move to continue growing the digital side of their business. According to CEO Todd Penegor, 2.5 percent of all their sales are done over the app, which is twice what it was last year at this time. In the next four years, it's aiming for 10 percent of all sales done through smartphones.

Wendy's is spending roughly $80 million to promote the new line of breakfast options, which it first announced back in September of last year. The restaurant is hoping that breakfast will make up 10 percent of its daily sales, even though they don't expect breakfast to become profitable until next year. Their new breakfast promotion also comes as a way to help drive more people through its app, which is similar to prior app-based promotions that offered half-price Frosties and free chicken nuggets.

While breakfast might not turn a profit just yet, the restaurant is confident that they'll make a significant dent in the marketplace in the meantime.

"We fully expect our competitors to start discounting," Wendy's U.S. President and Chief Commercial Officer Kurt Kane told CNBC. "The good thing for us is that every discount they offer takes profitability out of their franchisees' pockets and out of their own restaurants."

Other chains are starting to feel the heat, as McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts in late January that, "We have to win at breakfast. He added that there's "obviously a lot of focus and attention that we're going to be putting on that in 2020."

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