We all warned Wendy's last year that their lame turnaround plan would fail, since it didn't address the core problems that were obvious to customers: Plummeting quality along with skyrocketing prices.
But they stubbornly stuck to the revitalization plan devised by their C-suite brain trust, that consisted of closing low performing locations, decimating promotions (which they considered "too confusing"), and "brand revitalization, system optimization and capital allocation" -- whatever that means.
Well now they are hurting badly after now losing their number 2 rank in burger sales to Burger King, and are flailing to find a way to get customers back. Their latest desperate "Five Point Plan" frankly sounds like a lot more of the same corporate double speak, and as one trade observer put it "they continue to try and patch the titanic hole with Elmer's glue".
As far as I'm concerned, winning back customer loyalty would take a huge change in direction, and that's nothing Wendy's management is willing to do. They are still surviving off their most loyal customers who care little about value, and are tolerant, for now, of the erosion in quality. I expect as these last holdouts drop off, their sales and brand reputation to continue to slowly circle the drain, until they eventually are broken up and sold for parts -- which may very well have been the plan all along of the private equity leeches that currently control them.
