BBQ grilling the king’s way… BK’s new offering fires up sales The success of fast-food restaurants has always been built around the fact that when Americans want something, they want it done accurately and they want it done quickly. While barbequing spareribs has traditionally been a long and arduous process that involves many hours of slow cooking, the culinary innovators at Burger 800-367-0760 (563) 556-0760 Full Service Brokers of BEEF, PORK & POULTRY Domestic and Export Randy, Cindy, Mark, Darin & Lisa 36 Bluff Street, PO Box 171 Dubuque, IA 52004-0171 Fax 563-556-4131 King set out to find a way to let consumers have it their way, as their slogan states, by giving them the quality and taste they expect from barbecued ribs, with the ease and convenience of fast-food. Their success in this category was rewarded with soaring profits this past year. In their attempt to mix affordability with value, the meat minds at Burger King rolled out the all new BK Fire-Grilled Ribs. The bone-in, St. Louis-style pork ribs were offered in May and June of 2010 in servings of three, six, and eight pieces. Unlike other fast food predecessors such as the boneless, processed McDonald’s McRib, the BK ribs surprised many consumers with their close likeness to traditional bone-in barbeque, possessing firmness, resistance, grain, and a few precious pockets of fat. With the ribs priced considerably higher than most fast-food items (at up to $8.99 for an eightpiece meal), there was initial skepticism regarding consumer demand for such a high priced item. However, any doubt that may have existed was quickly put to rest within the first few weeks of their offering. The BK Ribs made Burger King Corp. the first national fast-food hamburger chain to serve authentic bone-in ribs—a product you normally don’t associate with quick-service restaurants. Releasing such a radically new and different product was a big gamble for the fast-food giant. It’s always a huge risk to add a new item to a menu, let alone an item that seems to be way outside of a company’s core competency. While offering the ribs was a high-stakes, highdollar affair, the BK Fire-Grilled Ribs proved to be a success in the end. Creating such a new and innovative product is no easy task. Burger King was faced with the challenge of doing what no fast-food restaurant had done before. Months—or years—can pass in the development process of an item like this before it is ever ready to be added to the menu. One major obstacle is the fact that ribs are difficult to cook. Their bone stays cold for a lot longer than the meat does which makes preparation time-consuming. Additionally, as they are a part of an animal’s body and are curved “While offering the ribs was a high-stakes, high-dollar affair, the BK Fire- Grilled Ribs proved to be a success in the end.” and uneven, they are not engineered to be cooked fast like hamburgers. In the past, most restaurants have solved the problem by simmering ribs in a ketchup-like sauce for hours at a time; However, this method overpowers the natural pork flavor, leaving only the taste of the sauce. To overcome these hindrances Burger King ingeniously used what it calls its “game-changing” broiler to cook them for one year before testing the ribs in four different markets across the country. Their efforts resulted in more than 10 million ribs being sold and supplies running out prior to the scheduled promotion end date—prior to June 18th, more than a week before the limited-time offering was planned to end. The foodservice media and mainstream press loudly praised the new rib product, and the buzz continued even after the limited-time offering had ended. Besides just generating additional profits for the Burger King Corporation, the new fast-food ribs demonstrated the public’s openness to fresh, innovative product ideas, and validated consumer demand for high-quality food, even at slightly higher price points. Other foodservice operations watched the success of this promotion carefully, and it may not be long before we see some of Burger King’s competitors attempt to imitate the Fire-Grilled Ribs. For now, Burger King remains pleased by its success and continues to evaluate plans for the future of their ribs.UB 28 • URNER BARRY’S REPORTER / VOL. 6, NO. 1 / WINTER 2011
VOL. 6, NO. 1 / WINTER 2011 / URNER BARRY’S REPORTER • 29
Change language