Burger King Breaks Into the Hot Dog Game

It took some planning for the 7,150 US locations to have access to them, but the official release date of February 23 is coming quickly.

Burger King is launching its biggest new product in decades: the grilled hot dog.

Burger King credited them with helping to drive better-than-expected sales in the second quarter of 2015.

Before the launch, Burger King tested the hot dogs in select markets in five USA cities previous year, which included a “Rodeo” option with onion rings, cheese, and BBQ sauce, as well as the “A1 Ultimate”, topped with bacon, cheese, and A1 Sauce – neither of which made the cut. The drive-in chain sells 12 different kinds of hot dogs, including the Footlong Cheesy Bacon Dog and the New York Dog.

While Macedo has high hopes for Burger King’s hot dogs, and while initial results are encouraging, the history of fast food is riddled with much-hyped products that have failed, and failed hard, according to the Street.

Burger King is going to the dogs – hot dogs, that is. “In 2014, Burger King’s sales rose 2.1% at established locations in the USA and Canada”.

The Times noted that Burger King is partially owned by a private equity group that also partly owns Kraft Heinz, a company that produces numerous condiments people will be using with the new item. “The introduction of Grilled Dogs just made sense to our guests and for our brand”, says Macedo. “We know the Whopper is America’s favourite burger – we want this to be America’s favourite hot dog”. In less than a year, they had failed.

Macedo recalled another Burger King failure from the past.

The hot dogs are coming from the iconic brand Oscar Meyer, a brand that comes from 3G Capital, much like Burger King does.