McDonald’s – the Burger joint that has already brought the world so many franchising, marketing and menu firsts – has revealed that has been demurring from blasting Plant-based Protein (PbP) products onto its menu for a good reason: Rather than partner with a PbP maker, it’s been developing its own…
The McPlant Burger (Prototype: Coming soon to a McD’s near you…
I didn’t suspect it; wasn’t nosing around trying to find out why. But the reason MCD’s had yet to introduce a significant roster of Plant-based Protein menu items wasn’t what I was suspecting. I honestly thought the Burger Behemoth was waiting for one or another of the leading third-party faux-Meat developers to come to with a fourth or fifth-gen product that met its picky standards. Now I find out McD’s was quietly, under a high-security blanket of secrecy, developing its own.
Not first to the table…
McDonald’s isn’t first to the table with Plant-based Protein Meat Substitute products, but as with many of its past developments, it wants to be best. And I suspect it wants to cut the middle men out of the supply chain to help keep prices for the currently prestige-tagged products competitive. Not to mention that, eve since Ray Croc first envisioned a McD’s franchising empire, it wants to remain in ansolute control of something so fundamental to its evolving business model as seguing to a whole new kind of ‘Meat’.
What’s on the table?
The first products to the table, so to speak, in the recently confirmed McPlant line, should appear early next year, and will (not surprisingly) be McPlant Burgers.
“There are other plant-based burgers out there, but the McPlant delivers our iconic taste in a sink-your-teeth-in (and wipe-your-mouth) kind of sandwich,” McDonald’s said in a blog post Monday. “It’s made with a juicy, plant-based patty and served on a warm, sesame seed bun with all the classic toppings.”
The McPlant Burger’s début roll-out will be a global test-marketing program designed to gauge their acceptability in various major market audiences. The company floated a Plant-based Meat substitute Burger made by Beyond Meat about a year ago, just to see if McFans were ready for one. McD’s has not commented specifically on the outcome of those trials, but it has indicated that it is dedicated to moving forward in that direction, ASAP.
“We are excited about the opportunity because we believe we have a proven, delicious-tasting product,” Borden said. “When customers are ready for it, we will be ready for them.”
‘Accelerating the arches’…
“McPlant is crafted exclusively for McDonald’s, by McDonald’s,” Ian Borden, McDonald’s International President, said at the company’s latest quarterly investor meeting yesterday. “In the future, McPlant could extend across a line of plant-based products including burgers, chicken substitutes and breakfast sandwiches.”
As such, the McPlant line is intended as a key component in what McD’s is calling its ‘Accelerating the Arches’ main menu renovation program, which is in turn core to an overall rejuvenation of the chains’ image and dining experience. Like all major Burger slingers, McD’s has been suffering stagnating sales and growth in the past few years, which McD’s has seen as a call from fate to thrust itself and its business model into the forefront of the Fast Food Industry’s ‘change or die’ challenge for the 2020s.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the core menu…
McDonald’s has also announced it will bring its Crispy Chicken Sandwich to its main menu permanently next year. The Sandwich – a clone of the Sammy pioneered by Chick-fil-A and knocked-off by Popeye’s to great acclaim last year – was tested late last year through early this year.
“It’s a simple build relevant for our U.S. customer base – with chicken, a potato roll, crinkle-cut pickles, and butter. It’s extremely craveable. I love it,” McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger toold the investor’s meeting. “More importantly, our customers loved it in test.”
Add that to the announcement that the Iconic McRIb is coing back for a limited time release over the holidays and you’ve a really high-profile Holiday season coming up for McD’s.
My take…
Bring on McPlant. But make sure it’s different enough and cheaper enough and better enough to be competitive with the Plant-based Protein competitors already-established in the market. You have some catching up to do.
Also… Why don’t they just add the McRib permanently to the main menu while they’re making the other changes? From what I’ve heard, they could easily offer a regular and a McPlant version of it, too, and round out the menu revamp all in one fell swoop. One of the main reasons that McD’s has only brought back the McRib for limited-time engagements up to now is that it has had a far-bigger fan base in some regions of the North American market than it does in others. That hasn’t stopped McD’s from offering regionally-targeted menu items elsewhere… So why not?
~ Maggie J.