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Taco Bell is considering making french fries a permanent fixture on its menu as it looks to compete with fast food giant McDonald’s, particularly during breakfast and lunch times.
"If you were to look at how we compete against McDonald's in dinner and late night, we're absolutely even," Taco Bell CEO Mark King said during an event with investors this week. "When you look at breakfast and lunch, we're significantly behind."
King explained that the reason for that gap between the two companies is "product."
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YUM | YUM! BRANDS INC. | 139.06 | +0.56 | +0.40% |
"So let me talk about lunch," King said. "We don't, we offer fries half the time. People that go to lunch want to have French fries. We know that. So we're looking at and testing, bringing fries permanently on to the menu, which would increase our lunch business dramatically.
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The medium-cut fries are covered in spicy Mexican seasoning and come with a side of nacho cheese (Taco Bell / Fox News)
Taco Bell launched its version of French fries, known as Nacho Fries, in 2018 and has offered them on the menu periodically since then.
King said that 65 million fast food consumers visit his restaurants 12 times a year or more and 100 million more consumers visit the locations once a year.
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McDonald's french fries (iStock / iStock)
"So really, our drive to more business is not only to keep our cult as we say, coming to us, but really to expand to these what we call light users. If we can get them to come more frequently, we can do that."
In order to do that, King said the chain, owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum! Brands, needs to offer "differentiated products."
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Taco Bell is continuing to innovate with tastes and flavors less familiar to other regions, while infusing familiarity and authenticity in every item. (Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Taco Bell / Getty Images)
"We're going to do it with digital," King said. "We're going to do it through this one-on-one connection. We're going to do it through focusing on breakfast and lunch."
Taco Bell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX Business.