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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Wendy's

Wendy’s is Semi-Secretly Testing a Plant-Based Burger in Canada

Wendy’s seems to be following in McDonald’s footsteps and launching a plant-based burger in Canada. In September McDonald’s began testing a meat-free burger in select Canadian locations. Earlier today, vegan advocacy sites LiveKindly and VegNews reported that social media picked up an outdoor Wendy’s advertisement in Toronto showing a burger called “The Plentiful” along with the words: “Where’s the beef? Not here.”

The fast-food chain hasn’t publicly announced the new burger yet, nor is it listed on its website. According to LiveKindly, The Plentiful is made from pea protein and is served with non-vegan cheese and mayonnaise.

And… that’s about all we know for sure. It’s unclear how much The Plentiful will cost, how many Wendy’s locations will offer it, or how long it will be available. Perhaps most importantly, we don’t know which brand of plant-based burger is on The Plentiful or whether it’s made from a patty developed internally by Wendy’s. Since we know the burger is pea protein-based, that rules out Impossible, which is made from soy and potato protein — but not Beyond.

If indeed The Plentiful is made with a Beyond Burger, Wendy’s would really be taking a page from McDonald’s book. The latter began testing a plant-based burger made with a Beyond patty called the P.L.T. (Plants, Lettuce, Tomato) in select locations in Canada this September. If this is the case, both Wendy’s and McDonald’s chose to omit the Beyond brand name from their new menu items — a move that I think is a missed opportunity to draw in new consumers familiar with the Beyond media buzz.

Regardless, it’s not a huge surprise that Wendy’s is hopping on the plant-based meat trend. During this year’s second-quarter review call Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor acknowledged the popularity of meat alternatives and said it was something that the fast-food chain would “look into.” Right after that Wendy’s fans gathered around 30,000 signatures on a petition calling the restaurant to add a plant-based burger to its menu.

Canada seems to be prime territory for fast food restaurants to test out new plant-based products. In addition to McDonald’s, 7-Eleven began selling a Beyond Meat pizza in the Great White North. Canadian chains Tim Horton’s and A&W were some of the first major fast-food chains to add Beyond Meat to their menus — though Tim Horton’s has since stopped serving the meat alternative in all but two regions.

We’ve reached out to Wendy’s and will update the post when we hear back. Until then, if you’re a Spoon reader in Toronto, give The Plentiful a try and tell us what you think!

 

Wendy’s Ramps Up Its Digital Order and Delivery Strategy

Wendy’s is intensifying its efforts around digital order and delivery, announcing at an Investor Day call last Friday that it is aiming to make digital sales 10 percent of all orders by 2024. Right now, digital sales account for 2 percent of orders.

Earlier this year, the Dublin, OH-based chain said it was investing an incremental $25 million into building “a stronger foundation” across its digital platforms. So far, that move to play catch up to its competitors appears to be paying off. At Investor Day this past Friday, Wendy’s Chief Digital Experience Officer Laura Titas noted in a presentation that check sizes are now 20 percent larger with mobile orders. For delivery specifically, the chain now sees check sizes 50 to 60 percent larger.

Titas’ presentation also suggested delivery will be key towards helping Wendy’s reach its 2024 goal for digital sales. To that end, she outlined multiple initiatives around improving the delivery experience.

For starters, it’s adding more delivery services. Wendy’s has partnered with DoorDash since 2017. Next year, the chain will expand its reach with third-party delivery to include Uber Eats and Grubhub, too.

And as is the case with many chain restaurants, QSR or otherwise, Wendy’s isn’t focusing its delivery strategy solely on those third-party partnerships. Instead, it will also launch what Titas called “in-app delivery,” where, thanks to a POS integration, Wendy’s can also process orders directly through its own app. While she didn’t give too many details, Titas said she expects this direct integration to knock three to five minutes off the delivery process. Meanwhile, the arrangement will also allow Wendy’s to track customer data more precisely.

Geolocation capabilities, to improve delivery and help ensure that customers are ordering from the right (i.e., the closest) Wendy’s, voice-order via Google Assistant, and a long-needed loyalty program were all announced at the Investor Day event as well.

Wendy’s certainly has its work cut out when it comes to evolving into a tech-forward restaurant company. Between Burger King’s many publicity stunts to drive mobile orders and McDonald’s turning itself into a tech company, competition is only growing fiercer when it comes to retaining customer loyalty. But with 60 percent of all restaurant orders now off-premises, there’s also a lot of room for growth and new audiences to grasp for those who can make their reach wide enough.

Wendy’s Doubles-Down on Its Tech Ambitions Post Earnings Call

If there’s one big takeaway to glean from Wendy’s first-quarter 2019 earnings call, which took place on Wednesday, it’s that the quick-service burger chain is ramping up its tech game in a big way.

Not that the Dublin, OH-based company was slacking. Prior to Wednesday’s call, Wendy’s had already installed self-serve kiosks in about 75 percent of its (North American) stores, accelerated its delivery program with DoorDash, and made progress on redesigning existing stores to better serve the digital needs QSRs in 2019 must meet.

Based on the transcript from this week’s earnings call, those initiatives have so far paid off. CEO Todd Penegor noted on the call that Wendy’s saw “system-wide sales growth” and that the company continues “to make meaningful progress with [its] consumer-facing digital capabilities.”

That progress includes further expansion of its delivery program, which Penegor said “continues to pace ahead of expectations.” The company plans to have 80 percent of its North American system available for delivery by the end of 2019, along with a more streamlined mobile app that will integrate DoorDash and make off-premise ordering an easier experience for customers. Mobile ordering will be available across the North American Wendy’s market by the end fo the year. (It currently operates in 75 percent of North America.)

A newer initiative for Wendy’s is the introduction of digital scanners, which are part of Wendy’s $25 billion investment in digital initiatives. Penegor said on the call the company plans to have scanners in all its restaurants by the end of 2019. Speed is the obvious benefit here, as the technology will allow employees to simply scan mobile coupons on orders, rather than keying them into a POS system, as was done previously.

For a QSR, however, providing speed at scale is almost important as the quick turnaround times themselves. Penegor said as much on the call, going as far as to say that scale “allows you to make investments in such things as enhanced training and tools, and that those with scale will ultimately win.”

Wendy’s celebrated its 50th birthday this year, but in terms of digital adoption, it has moved slower than McDonald’s, whose aggressive “experience of the future” redesign and foray into personalized recommendations have garnered much attention of late. That said, so has its ongoing battle with its franchisees, for whom all this new technology is sometimes more of an albatross around the neck than a revenue generator.

Wendy’s hasn’t reported any such friction as yet, so it will be important to keep an eye on the company as it scales its tech plans across the continent. They may not have a Dynamic Yield-like deal in the works yet (that we know of), but they could be creating a solid blueprint for growth worth mimicking in future.

Starbucks Will Power More Than 300 Texas Stores With Solar

Starbucks made another move towards investing in green energy today when it announced a partnership with solar company Cypress Creek Renewables. In a post on the coffee giant’s Stories site, Starbucks noted that the two companies, along with U.S. bank, are “teaming up on a portfolio of farms across Texas.” The partnership includes two solar farms that will power 360 Starbucks stores across Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Arlington.

The post also noted that Starbucks is investing in six other Cypress-owned solar farms in Texas, and predicts that the eight total farms will reduce the company’s total carbon footprint by 101,000 tons annually.

The Seattle-based coffee retailer isn’t new to solar initiatives. In April 2017, Starbucks invested in NC-47, solar farm in North Carolina to power around 600 Starbucks locations in that state as well as Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. In September of 2018, Starbucks announced its Greener Stores initiative, which, among other things, aims to power all stores with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. That includes solar as well as wind — in November of 2018, the company invested in an Illinois wind farm to power almost 350 of its locations.

Starbucks isn’t alone, either, in its plans to ramp up the sustainable side of business, for which the year 2025 is shaping up to be the key date for big-name quick-service brands. Wendy’s has its Squarely Sustainable program, which so far has included using more energy-efficient kitchen equipment and HVAC systems. The company also plans to reduce its overall energy usage by 20 percent by 2025. KFC will convert its packaging to renewable plastic sources, also by 2025. Meanwhile, McDonald’s has said it will source 100 percent of its packaging from renewable materials by, yep, 2025, and Dunkin’ has said it will do away with polystyrene cups by next year.

What will become clearer in future is which of these areas will help quick-service chains make the most positive impact on sustainability. From the perspective of a consumer, it’s easier to see that impact in compostable coffee cups and cutlery as replacements for polystyrene and plastic. Renewables are trickier in that they are a) harder for customers to “see” and b) have a long way to go in meeting long-term climate and sustainability goals. However, that doesn’t make them any less important, and as we inch towards 2025, we’ll see more of these initiatives from more chains, both in the U.S. and globally.

Wendy’s Just Aggressively Expanded Delivery in North America

This week Wendy’s announced it has expanded third-party delivery options in North America in what’s clearly a move to better compete with McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants as consumers demand more and more delivery.

Among other announcements during the company’s latest earnings call, Wendy’s CEO Todd A. Penegor noted that roughly 40 percent of the company’s restaurants in the U.S. and Canada now offer delivery, up from 25 percent at the end of the first quarter.

“The consumer has an appetite for convenience and we have seen this through our delivery economics,” he said, adding that check sizes have been “1.5 to 2 times higher on delivery orders.”

On the call, Wendy’s also reiterated its commitment to technology, including its new Digital Experience organization, which works on leadership changes, agile software development, and, of course, further developing the company’s mobile strategy. Current CIO David Trimm will retire in early 2019, which Wendy’s says will provide a chance to “refocus [their] leadership structure” to leverage more tech.

Wendy’s kickstarted delivery services at the end of 2017 by partnering with DoorDash in the U.S. and SkipTheDishes in Canada. On the aforementioned post-quarter earnings call, Wendy’s also reported that delivery is the number one area of business in terms of customer satisfaction. That’s huge, considering fast food isn’t inherently designed (cooked?) for travel, and a lot of fast food chains still struggle to keep food high-quality.

Take McDonald’s. The daddy of all fast food chains expanded its Uber Eats-powered delivery operations to about 5,000 stores in the U.S. in less than two years. They may be the most aggressive in terms of expansion right now (Wendy’s currently operates about 2,500 locations with delivery), but food quality remains an issue, most notably with soggy fries.

Not to be forgotten, Burger King is also ramping up efforts in both digital and delivery. While BK has experimented with delivery in the past, the company has been slower than its competitors to adopt it on a large scale. Even so, there are some who approve of BK’s slower ramp up, noting that a steady speed can “show what some of the potential pitfalls are.” Said pitfalls include losing some control of one’s brand to third-party services, as well as the food quality issue.

Delivery still represents only about 3 percent of all restaurant orders, fast food or otherwise. Most days it seems like more, given all the news we read about the market. But it’s still hard to tell if this trend towards getting fast food delivered to your home is a fad or an actual long-term strategy. For now, the question seems more about who can strike the best balance of timing, quality, and strategy to, erm, deliver what customers want most.

White Castle and DoorDash Partner, Offer Free Delivery

Ever since UberEats and McDonalds teamed up at the end of 2016, fast food chains big and small have made a charge towards delivery services in an attempt to keep up.

White Castle is the latest such chain; today they announced, via an email release, a partnership with DoorDash to offer delivery at almost 300 locations in the U.S. This is in addition to White Castle’s existing delivery services (see below). And in what’s also becoming a typical move for such releases, there will be a limited free delivery deal.

The majority of the White Castle menu is now available on DoorDash, from the iconic slider to those Crave Cases that have fed many a Superbowl party over the years. To celebrate this new partnership, DoorDash is offering free delivery on White Castle orders of $10 or more between today (July 30) and August 5, in selected areas. The company didn’t specify which areas, so check DoorDash’s list of locations for more info.

If said deal isn’t near you, fear not. You can still likely get White Castle delivered to your doorstep via Grubhub (though there’s no deal involved), as White Castle teamed with the service earlier this year.

Many food chains partner with multiple third-party services in order to grab the biggest slice that they can of the $43 billion food delivery market (predicted to hit $76 billion in 2022). That said, we’re seeing a small rise in exclusive partnerships — à la McDonalds-UberEats. DoorDash and Wendy’s also unrolled an exclusive partnership at the end of 2017. And earlier this year, Grubhub became the “official online ordering partner” of Yum Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, etc.) when the latter invested $200,000 million in Grubhub common stock.

No word yet on whether White Castle will partner with anyone else — Uber Eats, for example — in the future. White Castle has already embraced alterna-burgers and attempted to deliver Crave Cases via drones. So it’s safe to say the company is open to new ways in which to reinvent its business (digitized drive-thru strategy, maybe?), and new partners that can help that process.