Chicken bumps beef, hogs burger chain menus

McDonald's is finishing a national rollout of its new Premium Chicken Sandwiches this week. Company marketing execs are all aflutter about an expected poultry inspired sales spike in all 13,700 U.S. units.

The "premium" sandwiches will kill off lesser quality McGrills and give them a product they can throw at those upstart Chic-fil-A boys in Atlanta. It’s also a better piece of artillery to use in the chicken wars they’re fighting with the other burger chains (Editor’s note: watching new fast food product roll outs – all of which seem to be chicken based - makes me think burger chains are facing self extinction).

McD's CFO Matthew Paull told investors during their recent quarterly earnings conference that the Oak Brook oracles will “enhance our product relevance by listening to our customer and responding." (Editor's note: that customer isn't asking for burgers?)

How important are chicken sandwiches to the burger meister’s bottom line? Chicken sales jumped from $2.7 billion in 2002 to $4.3 billion last year to reach a bit under a third of their menu sales.

Hard on McD’s heels is a chicken-borne cavalry charge by competition like Burger King and Wendy's. Burger King just finished a national launch of their Chicken Fries three weeks ago. The all-white-meat chicken strips are formed to look like French fries, a concept developed by a beef marketer at the turn of the century that went no where in the red meat business.

Wendy's, an ersatz burger chain that long ago joined the chicken crusade, saw sales increase when they menued Homestyle Chicken Strips and Chicken Temptations. They’re busy cooking up new poultry inspired products, too. No word on new beef products that might be stuck in their developmental pipeline.

Want more proof that the beef industry is in trouble with the main stream restaurant biz? West coast chain Jack in the Box reports their new Ciabatta Chicken line on Italian-style rolls is a hot seller. Subway, the largest quick service restaurant chain in the U.S. (when you count number of stores) is pushing a grilled-chicken sub as a "fresh" alternative to burger chains' chicken sandwiches and fast-growing sub shop Quiznos reacted by promoting their own Chicken Milano sandwich.

All is not rosy in the sit-down, semi-service restaurants, either. New England chain Friendly's – known for its ice cream more than its food - has just added four baskets and a platter entrée on their existing chicken menu; a Firecracker Chicken Basket, an Oriental Sesame Chicken Basket, the Honey BBQ Chicken Basket, and a BBQ Chicken Platter (Editor’s note: Clara Peller, where are you?).

Does the food industry have a workable H.R. plan?

Hiring in the food industry seems to suffer from a curious paradox. Want somebody to work on the line? Too often, the main requirement is a pulse. Secondarily and hopefully, the company doctor will find no drug residue during the mandatory test. Want someone in the front office? Well, let’s try to drag that one out as long as possible with checks, double-checks, deep background checks and a lot of hand-wringing. Let the big buck managerial talent wait until he or she gets frustrated and accepts a position with academia.

Here’s the bottom line on that hiring phenomena. To often, the food industry opens its employment department’s revolving door and places poorly-trained, minimum wage labor in positions that allow them to handle every product that leaves the building. Such niceties like how to operate that fancy touch screen controller on the high tech cooker and exactly what the company means when it says food safety goes out with the wash.

Training in most organizations is best described as “lip service.” Hey, I’ve seen it. Bringing in a 19 year old Latino or a woman who just arrived from Slovenia, either of whom barely understand English, and making them watch a 30 minute video IN ENGLISH does not qualify as adequate training.

Meanwhile, that marketing wizard from Yale and the production guru with 20 years of experience is subjected to an agonizing forced march through the recruiting mill. The company thinks long and hard before hiring an exec who commands a near six figure income, even if he or she has the ability to earn it back quickly and in spades, to boot. Meanwhile, new clerks have to pass muster on matters of education and personal background even if their major function is nothing more than pushing paper.

Here’s the fatal flaw. The new guy on the production line with the 30 minute training tape under his belt can cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in downtime in his first month on the job. If he really screws the pooch with provably bad product and the legal profession comes knocking on the corporate door, we’re talking millions.

Does it make sense that if your new employee is just touching paper, he or she is subjected to a very careful background check and maybe a week or two of closely monitored training and the people who actually handle your product and your good name get a 30 minute video before they’re thrown to the wolves?

Of course it doesn’t! It’s an insane way to run a business.

Now before I start getting indignant cards and letters and threatening emails, let me say I know quite a few companies that do an outstanding job at hiring, training and keeping employees from the greenest beginner to the highest paid cowboy in the ivory tower. There’s a name for those kinds of companies: “Profitable.”

Unfortunately, I also know too many companies that view their employees as imminently replaceable, nameless cogs. There’s a phrase for those kinds of companies: “Miserable places to work.”

So if your company has a marvelous H.R. program worthy of national bragging rights, please write and tell me about it. Give me the details and I’ll do two things that will help everyone. (1) I’ll write about it in my next IHobnob column and (2) I’ll send the details directly to a few of those companies that desperately need help. My email address is crjolley@msn.com.

An era ends -Atkins is over

Acknowledging that one of the hottest dietary fads in history has finally run its course, Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company that helped the red meat business to unprecedented sales growth and profitability, has filed for chapter 11 protection. Shrinking demand and a long list of new low carb products, backed with large ad budgets by major food businesses like Kraft and ConAgra, cut deeply into Atkins’ sales and market share.

The filing will be cheered, of course, by a baking industry that took a major sales dive as the Atkins diet grew in popularity. Spurred by the new food pyramid and its promotion of whole grains, bread has returned as a food item in good standing. Those of us in the meat business, though, should take a moment to give thanks to the good Doctor Atkins, who died from a fall several years ago, and mourn the passing of the fad.

The privately-held company had already reached an agreement with many of its lenders to trade equity for lowered debt (Author’s note: a deal that smacks of accepting junk bonds to help cut your losses).

According to President and CEO Mark S. Rodriguez, the company has “adjusted our organization to accommodate a smaller business.”

After bankruptcy, the company will “focus on its nutrition bars and shakes,” Rodriguez said (Author’s note: meaning Atkins will become a decidedly smaller company focusing on the second tier of C-Store display cases, right behind the meat snacks).