Arkansas-based fast-casual restaurant chain Slim Chickens, known for its tenders and wings, is rolling out a chicken-breast sandwich for taste-testing.
Testing is underway at Slim Chickens' three Fayetteville locations, its Rogers store, and in Broken Arrow, Okla., near Tulsa. The restaurant chain is offering cayenne ranch and buffalo chicken sandwiches in Northwest Arkansas and cayenne ranch and Cajun chicken versions of the sandwich in Oklahoma.
Customers who select the sandwich are asked for feedback in a survey that takes about a minute to complete. That information goes straight to a few select Slim Chicken executives. So far, customers' feedback has already resulted in changes to one of the sandwiches. The process is expected to continue for the next several weeks.
"Early indicators are positive," said Sam Rothschild, Slim Chickens' chief operations officer. "This is why you test."
While the chain has offered sandwiches in the past, this is the first one made with a whole, premium chicken breast. Rothschild described the test sandwiches as being made from high-quality chicken and "fully dressed" with Slim's sauce, pickles, lettuce and onions.
"We want our sandwich to stand out," he said.
Slim Chickens has 35 restaurants -- 25 are company owned and 15 are franchise operations -- in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Tennessee, with 21 other stores under construction. With the new stores, Slim's is expected to have more than 50 restaurants open by the end of the year. The company said it hopes to have 600 stores in the United States by 2024.
Slim Chickens competes in the fast-casual segment, where operations focus on an enhanced dining experience compared with fast-food operations. While they don't have a wait staff, fast-casual restaurants typically deliver patrons their food after ordering.
According to information provided by Chicago-based Technomic Inc., a research and consulting firm focusing on food and food service, sales at limited-service chains among the top 500 U.S. restaurant chains grew 5.5 percent to $211 billion in 2015. Sales at limited service chicken restaurants was up 9 percent. Limited service chains include fast food and fast-casual concepts.
Sales in the fast-casual segment alone were up 11.5 percent, and unit growth was up 9.6 percent in 2015, according to the report.
Darren Tristano, president of Technomic, said that portability, in the form of a sandwich, is something that consumers are looking for, and that adding a sandwich helps fast-casual operations compete with more traditional fast food's convenience factor.
"One hand on the wheel and the other on a sandwich," he said.
He added that Slim Chickens' efforts to test the sandwiches locally are wise.
"They are getting consumers to validate the quality of the product," he said. "It's what successful brands do but not what everybody does."
Rothschild said the sandwich sells for $3.99 by itself or as part of a combo meal at $6.49. Slim Chickens' lowest cost combo meal, pre-sandwiches, was $6.99. He said that puts the Slim Chickens' sandwich and combo meal close to fast food on price.
"We want people to come to us when they want chicken," Rothschild said.
SundayMonday Business on 06/05/2016