McD courts Hispanics with McSkillet Burrito a.m. item

Nation's Restaurant News,  Dec 3, 2007  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

OAK BROOK, ILL. -- McDonald's last week officially rolled out its new McSkillet Burrito as part of an effort to raise breakfast sales beyond their current 24-percent contribution to overall restaurant volume and to attract more Hispanics.

The $2.49 burrito "has particular appeal for our Hispanic customers," said Bill Lamar, chief marketing officer of McDonald's Corp.

Spanish-language television ads are running in select markets to support the item, which is a flour tortilla wrapped around scrambled eggs, sausage, a cheese blend, skillet potatoes, roasted red and green peppers, onions, and salsa roja.

McDonald's, which is promoting the McSkillet Burrito in online ads as "a Saturday morning, sit-down style breakfast you can eat on the go," called it the chain's first new handheld breakfast item since the 2003 rollout of McGriddles sandwiches.

A Southern-style chicken biscuit item now being test marketed is likely to be the next morning sandwich addition, Lamar indicated.

"We think it will be a way to introduce customers to chicken at breakfast," he said.

In some markets, a smaller breakfast burrito is still offered as a $1 value menu item by branches of the 13,700-unit U.S. McDonald's system.

Although the chain is known to be eyeing systems in Europe for all-day-breakfast sales, that wouldn't happen in domestic outlets "for a long time," said Jan Fields, chief operating officer of McDonald's USA. She also noted that 77 percent of the chain's restaurants now open at 5 a.m.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning