Sonic Corp., the nation’s largest chain of drive-in restaurants, today announced that it will launch a system-wide value menu at the end of December, in line with the company’s previous announcement that it was taking a more strategic approach to pricing. Sonic’s new value-oriented offerings reflect the added pressure that the challenging economic environment has placed on consumers and, in turn, the growing frequency of consumers trading to lower-priced choices.
“We are focused on providing our customers with a variety of meal options at different price points,” said Clifford Hudson, Sonic’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Our new value menu will give customers the flexibility to snack, add sides or build a meal at a price that best meets their needs. At the same time, we note that incremental growth in the quick-service restaurant segment has been driven primarily by value-based offers, and we believe that the combination of a strong value menu and our highly differentiated drive-in concept will enable us to capitalize on that opportunity.”
The company also updated its expectations for sales growth for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 that ended on November 30, 2008. Estimated system-wide same-store sales were below expectations for the quarter and are expected to decline by 2% to 3%. However, November same-store sales were slightly positive, reflecting a strengthening of sales with a more aggressive, price-sensitive promotion versus September and October.
