Food & Beverage

Wendy's says burger supply is fairly 'beefy' now

Photo: iStock

June 9, 2020

Wendy's said that not only is its beef supply largely back to normal, but its comp sales for May improved every week, even though they were still down 3.3% overall for the month. Meanwhile, worldwide same-store sales fell 9.9% at the brand. 

Wendy's said its U.S. breakfast business was strong in May, with about 8% of its national systemwide sales, while U.S. digital sales in May made up about 4.5% of systemwide sales nationally. Here again, the brand said in a release that it was impacted by a "temporary disruption in beef supply as items were temporarily removed from mobile order and delivery menus if there were beef supply issues at an individual restaurant level."

Relative to that beef supply, the brand said that it did, in fact, have a disrupted supply in early May, and as a result, some menu items "were occasionally in short supply at some Wendy's system restaurants." The company and its supply chain partners effectively managed through this disruption by allocating beef to all Wendy's system restaurants, with deliveries occurring two or three times a week, consistent with normal delivery schedules, as it told this website previously. 

The company said it also shifted its marketing efforts in the short term to focus on chicken products in an effort to alleviate pressure on beef demand. Today, the brand said its beef supply has "returned to near-normal levels across the Wendy's system."