Friday, August 29, 1997

Burger wars sizzle at Burger King sets sights on McDonald's

By RICHARD TOMKINS / The Financial Times

NEW YORK -- The burger wars entered a new and more vicious phase Thursday when Burger King announced it was launching a direct assault on McDonald's flagship Big Mac with a lookalike product called the Big King.

The move comes soon after it emerged that McDonald's, which is struggling against tough competition, was quietly test-marketing a new sandwich called the Big 'n' Tasty -- a hamburger bearing a remarkable resemblance to Burger King's flagship product, the Whopper.

The Big Mac, introduced in 1968, is McDonald's best known and most successful sandwich -- a double-decker burger in which two meat patties are separated by an extra slice of bread.

Burger King says its Big King is superior to the Big Mac because it contains more meat and less bread. The two meat patties are 75 percent heavier than those in the Big Mac, it says, and the extra slice of bread is omitted.

Burger King also intends to emphasize that the meat patties in its Big King, like those in the Whopper, are "flame- broiled" instead of fried, a feature that has proved a popular selling point with consumers

The Big King will be rolled out over Labor Day weekend.

Burger King is pressing ahead with the launch in spite of a scare prompted by the discovery of potentially deadly bacteria in meat patties from the processing plant of one of its suppliers, Hudson Foods. The plant was shut and many Burger King outlets were forced to suspend sales pending the arrival of fresh supplies, even though no contaminated meat was found in any restaurants.

Earlier this week Burger King took out newspaper advertisements assuring customers that its products were safe.

Burger King said Thursday that episode was behind it. "It's business as usual," a spokesman said. "We are in the business of marketing the best-tasting burgers in the world, and that doesn't stop."

Successful product launches are rare in the fast-food industry. The Whopper dates back to 1957, and the Big King is Burger King's first significant new product since the launch of the BK Broiler chicken sandwich in 1990.

McDonald's has been suffering severe difficulties in its domestic market caused by tough competition from Burger King and other fast-food operators. Last year it lost market share to Burger King and Wendy's.

Burger King has had its problems, too. Earlier this year, Grand Metropolitan, the company's British-based food and drinks owner, replaced Burger King's chief executive amid suggestions that its performance was unsatisfactory outside the U.S. Last month Burger King announced that it was pulling out of France because of weak profitability.