Wendy’s reported a 5.7% annual drop in U.S. same-restaurant sales for the third quarter and plans to expand a breakfast opt-out policy it estimates could generate up to $200 million in restaurant-level EBITDA.
Steve Cirulis, Wendy’s chief financial officer and chief strategy officer, gave the estimate in the company’s third-quarter results release. The company did not say how many locations might take the option or provide an estimated gain per restaurant.
President and CEO Bob Wright said on the company’s earnings call Thursday, Nov. 5, that Wendy’s would extend the choice across U.S. locations, with a broader rollout later this year. The policy lets individual restaurants stop breakfast service rather than ending it across the U.S. system.
Wright said tests found that restaurants stopping breakfast improved profitability during lunch, dinner and late night. Many later made up all the breakfast sales they had lost with added sales later in the day, he said.
For the quarter ended Sept. 27, U.S. same-restaurant sales were 5.7% below the year-earlier level, Wright said. The decline narrowed by 130 basis points, or 1.3 percentage points, from the second quarter, although sales remained below the year-ago level. The quarter ended June 28, when U.S. same-restaurant sales fell 7%, was covered in EconoTimes’ report on Wendy’s second-quarter results.
Wendy’s reported adjusted EBITDA of $113.4 million for the latest quarter, down 17.8% from a year earlier. That company-level quarterly result is distinct from the $200 million estimate, which covers potential restaurant-level earnings across company-operated and franchised locations.
The broader rollout of the breakfast option is planned for later in 2026.
