Restaurants Updates: McDonalds, Dunkin’ Rely on Pies at Breakfast, New Menu Items to Drive Sales

Restaurant chains across the country are leaving no stone unturned as they look for innovative menus to feed the appetite of a nation obsessed with convenience and speed when it comes to food. From Wendy’s (NYSE:WEN) to McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), no restaurant chain wants to be left behind in the race to come up with new and customized products. The idea is to provide consumers with as many choices as possible as well as give them the option to order food at non-traditional hours. There is no breakfast, lunch and dinner anymore. Breakfast and dinner are increasingly being combined to form ‘Brinner’ that explains why more than 20% of cookies and apple pies sold by McDonald’s are during breakfast. ^[1]

McDonald’s also introduced two new, seasonal drinks through its beverage line McCafé. The drinks, namely Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Peppermint Mocha, will be available in all of the 14,000 plus McDonald’s U.S. restaurants. ^[2] Beverages now constitute more than 20% of McDonald’s revenues, so this segment is something which McDonald’s is taking very, very seriously. McCafé was recently launched in Canada as well. You can read more about it in our recent note, McCafe Leverages McDonald’s Reach in Canada Taking on Starbucks.

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Dunkin Donuts, a subsidiary of Dunkin Brands (NYSE:DNKN), recently unveiled its new Holidays Menu which included Hot and Iced Lattes, Warm Cinnamon Swirl Muffin and Holiday Donuts. ^[3] Since then, it has also teamed up with Hillshire Farms to launch the new Smokehouse Sausage Breakfast Sandwich. (Read more on this in our earlier article, Dunkin Donuts to Experiment With New Menu)

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Domino’s introduced stuffed cheesy bread in three flavors. Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) recently opened its first Asian Cuisine restaurant in Washington DC. Sonic and Red Robin also introduced limited time offer sandwiches recently. The list is endless.

It is not just the restaurants that are having to adapt. Companies like Kellogg’s (NYSE:K) and Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT) are increasingly marketing cereals as an evening snack. This is an interesting and an exciting time for companies who are proactive enough to stay ahead of the food curve.

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1. Weird eating habits in U.S. challenge food industry, AZ Central,November 24, 2011 [↩]
2. McD unveils new McCafé drinks, November 7, 2011 [↩]
3. Dunkin’ debuts new holiday items, November 2, 2011 [↩]