While other breakfast-serving fast food restaurants are “obviously” paying attention to McDonald’s foray into the all-day breakfast market, officials with Sonic say the new competition isn’t really that big of a deal.
Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday (warning: link has video that autoplays) that the company isn’t sweating the Golden Arches’ new menu additions.
“They are doing breakfast all-day, but we’ve been doing all menu all-day forever, so this was not a big deal to us,” he said.
Hudson says, so far, the company has worked “pretty good” against McDonald’s and that all-day breakfast shouldn’t really change things.
“I think the customer, when they’re offered choices, and they’re offered made-to-order food, as they are in our case, in a variety of items that can work for them across day parts, then they’re happy to engage you, and we’ve got good traffic, good sales, good profit at our average store,” he said.
Hudson isn’t the first fast food rival to brush off McDonald’s entry into all-day breakfast: earlier this month, Dunkin’ Donuts executives said they weren’t worried about the Golden Arches and that the donut shop had plenty of weapons at its disposal.
“I think competition exists every single day of the year in our industry,” Chris Fuqua, vice-president of Dunkin’ Donuts brand marketing and global consumer insights and product innovation, said at the time. “Breakfast is the biggest part of Q.S.R. that’s growing. When one of the biggest players out there gets into breakfast all-day, obviously we pay attention.”
Sonic CEO: McDonald’s all-day breakfast no big deal [CNBC]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist