Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos, launched nationally in early March, has officially become the most successful product launch in the chain's 50-year history.
According to the OC Register, 100 million Doritos Locos Tacos were sold in about 10 weeks. This catapulted the new item past the Crunchwrap Supreme, which made its debut in 2005 and quickly became the chain's most successful product launch.
The Doritos Locos Taco features a proprietary nacho cheese-flavored Doritos shell created in partnership with Frito-Lay, and is a permanent menu item. More versions are expected to be launched soon, including a Cool Ranch Doritos version.
The new taco has been largely credited with steering Taco Bell's sales turnaround. In parent company Yum! Brands' most recent earnings call, sales at the chain were up 6 percent. This is compared to a 13 percent decline from the previous year, when Taco Bell was navigating a now-dropped lawsuit over food quality and subsequent negative publicity.
"We think we can generate innovation on the taco platform, which frankly we haven't had in 50 years. Now, on our core product, we have a platform that is proprietary and one that we can innovate off of into the future," said CEO David Novak. "That's exciting. The key for us is to build off these platforms that we're developing so we get sustainable growth in the future."
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