“There’s so much new news with our Stackburgers and with the labor situation with our franchisees, we didn’t want to introduce too many new items for them,” Bader said. While fast-food competitors such as McDonald’s are testing or adding plant-based burgers, Dairy Queen is sitting out for now. 7 and has so far seen double-digit increases in units sold, without any advertising. Dairy Queen soft-launched the Stackburgers on Feb. same-store sales climbed 17% compared with 2019 levels.īader is confident that the burgers will further fuel sales. In the two-year period from 2020 through 2021, the chain’s U.S. “From period forward, we’ve had nothing but record sales,” he said. After that month and a half, however, its business rebounded quickly. Bader said Dairy Queen sales fell significantly for six weeks in the spring of 2020, as the pandemic led to lockdowns and fear about even visiting drive-thru lanes. Bader said the chain wanted to make sure its vendors had enough employees to ensure that franchisees weren’t left in a lurch.īut the chain wasn’t concerned about customers staying home. A nationwide labor crunch exacerbated supply chain issues, so Dairy Queen opted to postpone the launch, which was originally slated for late fall in 2021. In total, nearly 100 locations were involved, making it the largest test for the chain in more than two decades. Restaurants in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta were also included in the test. For almost 10 months, Dairy Queen tested the new menu items in Birmingham, Alabama Sioux Falls, South Dakota and South Bend, Indiana. Then the chain put the Stackburgers to the test. “We were proud of our burgers, but we knew that we could do better with them,” Bader said. The chain revamped its chicken strip offerings first before it tackled burgers. The company knew that it couldn’t “be everything to everyone,” so it tried to figure out what its customers wanted, according to Bader.ĭairy Queen landed on two foods: chicken strips and burgers. International Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader said in an interview that the chain started looking at its menu critically nearly five years ago, around the time that he took the reins of the company. The official launch on Tuesday is a long time coming. Last year, Dairy Queen’s annual revenue rose 18% to $224.7 million, according to franchise disclosure documents. With a net income of $84.3 million in 2021, the fast-food chain is a relatively small component of Buffett’s empire, which reported net income attributable to shareholders of $89.8 billion for last year. Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway has owned Dairy Queen for 25 years. Panera Bread has been pushing for more dinner orders by adding items such as flatbread pizza to its menu, while Dine Brands’ IHOP made waves several years ago by briefly changing its name to IHOB to promote its burgers. The Stackburger line is also launching in Canada.ĭairy Queen is far from the only restaurant chain to widen its offerings to attract more customers. The burgers will be a permanent addition to menus at the company’s DQ Grill & Chill locations, which account for 72% of Dairy Queen’s more than 3,300 U.S.
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