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Wendy's CEO: Breakfast will not be ruled out

December 17, 2014

Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu interviewed Wendy's CEO Emil Brolick this week on a number of topics, including the chain's failed breakfast rollout and the increasing competition with fast casual concepts. 

Brolick said Wendy's presents a "new QSR quality at a competitive price," fitting the brand between Chipotle and McDonald's, for example.

"We don't charge premiums relative to the traditional QSR experience but we feel that we give them a premium experience," he said. "If you think of us in the context of the quick casuals or the new QSR we are giving people a comparable experience as you can see here and the quality of this food, but a significantly lower price. Our average check is probably 40- 45 percent lower than the average newer QSR."

As for breakfast, the company tried to enter the daypart a few times, including in 2007 and 2012, but discontinued the menu due to "inconsistency." 

Still, despite the pullback, Brolick said Wendy's isn't ruling out another go at it.

"We have tested breakfast many times over the years and you know we feel as virtually the only large national chain that hasn't gotten into breakfast…It's very difficult to enter that space today and commit the kind of marketing resources that we feel would be necessary to really entrench ourselves successfully in that breakfast day," he said during the interview.

"We want to make sure that we can do that in a highly profitable basis. And we felt based upon our last earning that we weren't quite there."

In the future, the company will consider a breakfast strategy around differentiation.

Brolick also discussed minimum wage protests and increases taking hold across the country. He said supply and demand should determine the price points for products and wages and emphasized the opportunity Wendy's – and other restaurants – offer employees for upward mobility.

"I think the restaurant industry deserves a pat on the back," he said.