The beginning of the year saw a flurry of new value menu introductions as restaurants tried to lure cash-challenged customers in the door, and this week two chains, Dairy Queen and Church's Chicken, reported that their initiatives seem to have paid off.
International Dairy Queen, parent of the 5,600-unit Dairy Queen concept, said the chain's new Sweet Deals value menu helped drive a 5-percent surge in same-store sales after it was introduced in January. Dairy Queen's first permanent value menu features nine items that customers can mix and match, two items for $3, 3 for $4 or 4 for $5.
The value menu accounted for nearly 10 percent of total sales in March, making it one of the best-performing food initiatives in Dairy Queen's history, the company said.
“Sweet Deals is an important initiative for us, and its success suggests that customers have responded well to DQ's first value menu, which is well-suited and well-timed for the challenging economic environment we all are experiencing,” said Michael Keller, chief brand officer for Minneapolis-based International Dairy Queen.
Atlanta-based Church’s Chicken, which operates or franchises more than 1,600 locations worldwide, also reported positive results from its 99-cent value menu, which debuted in January. The new menu helped boost domestic systemwide sales by 3.4 percent and customer transactions by 6.3 percent in January, Church's said.
The 99-cent menu includes eight items, such as a spicy chicken sandwich, five chicken nuggets and Jalapeno Cheese Bombers.
"The move to an even lower price point of these selected items only re-enforces our brand’s commitment of value during these tough economic times," said Farnaz Wallace, Church's chief marketing officer.
Church’s said sales are up 2.6 percent so far this year.
Sonic Drive-In and KFC also introduced their first national value menus early this year. While Sonic reported negative same-store sales in its February-ended second quarter, chairman and chief executive Clifford Hudson said the value menu helped stem traffic decreases.
"This new aspect of our menu strategy is backed by a strong advertising push and, in little more than two months, we have seen traffic increases across multiple dayparts," Hudson said.
KFC 's value menu, which debuted in February, is part of parent company Yum! Brands Inc.'s plans to improve sales at the struggling chicken chain. Another such initiative came this week as KFC introduced its new line of grilled chicken.
Contact Dina Berta at [email protected] and Molly Gise at [email protected].
