The rebound at Wendy’s seems to be for real.
After nearly two years of bad luck, slumping sales, operational glitches and mixed messages with products and advertising, the Dublin-based chain is regaining its footing.
Sales at Wendy’s restaurants open more than a year — an industry benchmark — rose 2.4 percent in June, the chain’s first significant monthly increase in nearly two years.
That was followed by a 3.6 percent gain last month, and numbers for August appear to be even better, interim Chief Executive Kerrii Anderson said last week.
Also, more customers are visiting the stores.
“We believe the momentum is trending upward,” she said.
Analysts believe it, too.
Paul Westra, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York, told the investment firm’s clients that Wendy’s turn-around plan “is beginning to exhibit traction.”
But he and other analysts remain cautious, because the same-store-sales gains in recent months are being compared with weak figures recorded a year earlier.
Still, Anderson and key members of her management team — Dave Near, chief operations officer, and Ian Rowden, executive vice president and chief marketing officer — say the changes they’ve put into place are bearing sustainable fruit.
“We’re executing well now because we have the process, people and strategy in place,” said Rowden, who was hired in late 2004 and oversees marketing, strategy and innovation.
Anderson brought in Near, son of the late Jim Near, a former Wendy’s chairman and CEO, to revitalize the operations side of the business and placate unhappy franchisees, whose profits were sliding.
“I think sometimes we got away from the business of blocking and tackling, doing what you do best every day,” Anderson said.
“When I step back, I realize we weren’t doing that.”
The changes, combined with an array of new products, led by the Frescata deli sandwiches, seem to be working.
Frescata’s introduction nationally in April was followed by the addition of a chicken sandwich on Wendy’s Super Value menu, kids’ ham and turkey sandwiches and a vanilla Frosty. There are other planned product introductions and extensions of the hamburger line, including a double-melt burger by the end of the year.
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