Social media was abuzz Thursday after McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger shared on Good Morning America that the chain’s snack wrap will return to menus in 2025.
While much of the interview focused on the chain’s E. coli outbreak – which has since been declared over – Erlinger briefly shared that, “The Snack Wrap will be back in 2025.”
“This has a cult following. I get so many emails in my inbox about this product. It will be back,” he added, without disclosing the specific launch date for competitive reasons.
The Snack Wrap is unquestionably in high demand as evidenced by that social media fodder, as well as petitions on Change.org asking for its return. In fact, Change.org sent a message following the GMA interview declaring victory.
“This announcement comes after years of public demand, including dozens of Change.org petitions calling for the beloved menu item’s return totaling over 50,000 signatures,” the organization stated. Change.org added that the first petition asking for the Snack Wrap’s return was started in 2020 with supporters arguing that the item was the “ideal balance of convenience, taste, and health.”
Those attributes have helped create a wrap competition in the quick-service category, with brands like KFC, Sonic, Burger King, and Wendy’s recently adding their own versions. Of course, the offering is nothing new –McDonald’s debuted its wrap in 2006 followed by KFC’s in 2008. In 2010, McDonald’s began testing a burrito-sized wrap.
Erlinger’s GMA interview is also not the first time McDonald’s has teased the return of its Snack Wraps, which were last available nationwide in 2016 featuring chicken tenders wrapped with lettuce, shredded cheese, and a choice of sauce.
During the company’s Investor Day event a year ago, Jo Sempels, president, of International Developmental Licensed Markets, said there will be a sharpened focus on the core menu, which generates 65% of systemwide sales, increasing at a clip of about 7% each year.
The core menu, he added, has grown over twice as fast as the rest of the menu. Among those core equities are 17 $1 billion brands, such as the McCrispy, the McFlurry, Big Mac, and Chicken McNuggets. McDonald’s chicken sales, he said, are now on par with its beef sales and will continue to be a priority – with the help of the Snack Wrap.
“With four chicken equities that are billion-dollar brands in their own right, we have made impressive strides against our goal of developing a reputation for chicken,” he said. “Fueling even higher ambitions by the end of 2025, we plan to further expand the McCrispy to nearly all markets and identify an opportunity to broaden into wraps and tenders. We see the potential to add another point of chicken share by 2026.”
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
