Chick-fil-A Adds New Biscuit to Spice Up Breakfast Routine, Help Continue Positive Sales Performance

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ATLANTA, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Chick-fil-A® is offering customers a new alternative to break-up their breakfast routine in 2011. On Jan. 10, the Atlanta-based restaurant chain will introduce a new Spicy Chicken Biscuit to its breakfast menu to complement the Spicy Chicken Sandwich Chick-fil-A added to its lunch and dinner menus in June.

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To celebrate, Chick-fil-A is giving customers a chance to taste the new biscuit for free before it is officially added to the menu. Beginning Dec. 27, customers can visit www.getspicychicken.com to reserve a free Chick-fil-A® Spicy Chicken Biscuit at participating Chick-fil-A restaurants. Reservations may be redeemed the week of Jan. 3 – 8 during breakfast hours (6:30 to 10:30 a.m.) at the selected restaurant by presenting a printed confirmation from the reservation web site. Reservations may be redeemed in both the restaurant and drive-thru.

The Spicy Chicken Biscuit features the chain's signature hand-breaded boneless breast of chicken seasoned with a fiery blend of peppers and spices, pressure-cooked in 100 percent refined peanut oil and served on a made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuit. The biscuit starts at $2.25 as an entree and is also offered as part of a Chick-fil-A® Breakfast Meal, which includes a beverage and an order of Hash Browns or other side item, starting at $4.09.

"Customers began asking for a spicy version of our hero breakfast offering, the Chick-fil-A® Chicken Biscuit, as soon as our Spicy Chicken Sandwich hit menu boards in June, and the demand for spicy products in general continues to grow," said Woody Faulk, Chick-fil-A's vice president of brand strategy and design, who is responsible for the chain's menu. "The Spicy Biscuit will give our customers the option to start their day with something truly different, and certainly a whole lot 'hotter,' as we continue to expand and vary our breakfast menu. The Spicy Biscuit will give customers another reason to visit Chick-fil-A for breakfast – a day-part that continues to grow."

Faulk added that Chick-fil-A's new Spicy Chicken Biscuit also gives customers another option to break up the habitual breakfast routine. According to marketing research firm NPD Group, 48 percent of people say their breakfast choices are driven by routine, with "most consumers looking at breakfast as part of a ritual for getting started in the morning. It's the only meal when eating the same food every day is not only common but acceptable."  

"Breakfast is an extremely routine-oriented day-part," Faulk added. "People typically travel to and from work the same way each day and they also tend to have a list of stops they frequent during the work week. Even more importantly, people are time-starved in the morning, so when they make a stop, they expect prompt, accurate and courteous service. Chick-fil-A continues to meet these needs with new offerings that appeal to a broader range of customers who may eventually make Chick-fil-A's breakfast a part of their morning routine."

NPD Group also found breakfast sales accounted for 60 percent of growth in foodservice traffic over the past five years. Their foodservice market research also shows that for the year ending March 2010, there were over 12 billion morning meals served at U.S. restaurants, and 80 percent of restaurant morning meals were purchased from quick-service restaurants. Over the past five years, morning meal traffic increased an average of two percent per year, comparatively, while lunch visits were flat, and supper traffic declined by two percent per year on average.

Chick-fil-A's entry into the breakfast market came in 1986 when the then mall-based chain expanded outside of shopping centers and began building stand-alone restaurants that opened for breakfast. The chain has steadily focused on building the breakfast day-part over the past five years and has diversified its morning menu with breakfast burritos, bagel sandwiches, fruit cups and yogurt parfaits.  Its signature breakfast item continues to be the Original Chick-fil-A® Chicken Biscuit.

"This has been an exceptional year for Chick-fil-A," said Chick-fil-A's Senior Vice President of Marketing Steve Robinson. "In June, we made our largest new product introduction ever with our Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Just six short months later, we are fortunate to be in a position where our business is healthy enough to add another new entree item to our breakfast menu with the Spicy Chicken Biscuit."

Robinson noted that these menu additions coincided with strong restaurant growth as well. While many quick-service chains have slowed restaurant expansion plans, Chick-fil-A has remained committed to its deliberate growth pattern of adding some 75 to 80 restaurants annually. The chain will end the year with the addition of 81 new eateries across the country, including its first three Chicagoland locations, for a 2010 growth rate of more than five percent.

Menu enhancements coupled with stable restaurant expansion have helped fuel Chick-fil-A's sales in a sluggish economy. As a result, the chain anticipates exceeding last year's overall and same-store performance to maintain its streak of consecutive sales gains over its 43 years of existence (since 1967).

About Chick-fil-A, Inc.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, Inc. is the nation's second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain (based on sales), with more than 1,535 restaurants in 39 states and Washington D.C.  In 2009, Chick-fil-A produced record sales of $3.2 billion – an 8.6 percent overall increase and a 2.5 percent same-store sales gain that helped extend the chain's streak of consecutive sales gains to 42 years. 

Credited with inventing the boneless breast of chicken sandwich and first introducing the chicken nugget concept, Chick-fil-A serves nutritious and freshly prepared food products in mall locations, stand-alone restaurants, drive-thru-only restaurants, Chick-fil-A Dwarf House® and Truett's Grill® full-service restaurants, and through licensed outlets in college campuses, hospitals, airports, businesses and industrial sites.  More information about Chick-fil-A is available on the chain's websites, located at www.chick-fil-a.com/pressroom , or through Facebook at www.facebook.com/ChickfilA or Twitter: www.Twitter.com/ChickfilA.

SOURCE Chick-fil-A, Inc.