McDonald’s To Start Testing Three New Quarter Pounders

Disappointing sales have forced McDonald’s to begin testing new menu items in order to turn the franchise around.

Among the new items in development are three new quarter pounder burgers: Habanero Ranch, Bacon and Cheese, and Deluxe.

The Habanero Ranch has white cheddar, hickory-smoked bacon, and a habanero-ranch sauce. The Deluxe has American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, mayonnaise and mustard. The Bacon and Cheese will have American cheese, bacon, red onion, pickle, mustard and ketchup.

The chain will also launch a new McMuffin made with egg whites.

The Oak Brook, Illinois-based restaurant chain is testing the new products during a time of major transitions for consumer goods companies in the US, Nation’s Restaurant News reports.

The company posted its first monthly sales drop since 2003 earlier this month, as it lost customers to rival chains like Burger King. Shortly after the drop, McDonald’s announced plans to replace its US president, Jan Fields, who has been with the company for more than 35 years. Fields also drove the expansion of the McCafe drink menu.

Fields will be replaced by Jeff Stratton, McDonald’s global chief restaurant officer, beginning December 1.

“We feel that now was the right time to make a change in leadership for the U.S. business,” company spokeswoman Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem said on November 15.

Don Thompson, the company’s chief executive, told investors that slow growth and increased competition in the US would be a “new normal” for McDonald’s. This would require an emphasis on less expensive menu items.

McDonald’s operates or franchises more than 34,000 restaurants worldwide, including more than 14,000 in the United States.

Will you be trying McDonald’s new quarter pounders?