Wendy's Gears Up for Bacon-Fueled Breakfast Launch

Wendy’s, which already serves breakfast in over 300 restaurants, will be rolling out the menu nationwide to all 6,180 stores starting in the first quarter of 2020. Although the brand has seen a 10% stock decline following the announcement, CNBC reported that CEO Todd Penegor is confident in the brand’s success.

“We have a menu that can compete, a low-investment and a high-return model for our franchise community,” said Penegor on CNBC’s “Mad Money.” Wendy’s will also be hiring 20,000 employees to its staff to accommodate the early-morning rush. ?[Twenty thousand] seems like a big number, but when you think about it as three per restaurant it’s not going to be that hard. It’s a great day part to staff, it’s very convenient for folks to come in in the morning and be done by lunch time,” Pengor said to CNBC.

Not everyone is so eager to wake up and smell the Wendy’s. Guggenheim analyst Matthew DiFrisco wrote in a previous CNBC report, “Wendy’s has had multiple attempts to establish a breakfast business, 1985, 2006 and 2010, that were unsuccessful and pressured franchise margins.”

Wendy’s has seen recent success in reintroducing an old fan-favorite menu item—spicy chicken nuggets. Same-store sales even rose 4.4% in the third quarter.