Dive Brief:
- Wendy’s has added chicken tenders — called Tendys — to its core U.S. menu, according to a Tuesday press release, fulfilling a pledge made by CFO and interim-CEO Ken Cook on the chain’s August earnings call.
- The Tendys launched alongside six dipping sauces, including a signature sauce that, like signature sauces at rival chains, combines a creamy texture with a hint of heat.
- Chicken is increasingly dominant as a protein within the QSR space, accounting for about 37% of food spend within the segment, up 2% over the last two years, according to a report from Numerator.
Dive Insight:
Wendy’s cited the increasing prominence of chicken on menus as a factor driving the addition of its tenders.
“Consumers told us what they wanted in a chicken tender, and we listened – taste-tested, fine-tuned and delivered,” Lindsay Radkoski, the brand’s U.S. chief marketing officer, said in the press release. Wendy’s did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the scope, duration and performance of market testing for the Tendys.
Wendy’s said the breaded tenders are designed to be crunchy on the outside with a tender, juicy interior, and that the menu item was designed based on consumer feedback.
The tenders come in three- and four-piece orders, each with two cups of dipping sauce, with a two-piece option on the kids menu that comes with a single serving of sauce. Some of the sauce options appear to be reformulated or repackaged versions of extant dipping sauces available with the brand’s nuggets — like ranch dressing — while others are new. Wendy’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the differences between the new sauce versions and older ones.
Some restaurants in select cities will be rebranded from Wendy’s to Tendy’s during October to promote trial of the new menu item.
With strong consumer hunger for chicken — and with chicken prices more affordable than beef prices for restaurants — chicken tenders have become an important competitive item for many QSR brands. Raising Cane’s, a tenders specialist brand, has parlayed consumer desire for tenders and sauce into significant national growth, surpassing KFC’s total consumer spend in the U.S. last year.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s added new chicken tenders, the McCrispy Strips, to its permanent menu in May, a move that helped reverse recent same-store sales declines. Taco Bell added crispy chicken tenders to its menu as part of a time-limited menu move earlier this summer. Wendy’s, which has seen two straight quarters of same-store sales declines, could use a big boost from its new menu launch.
