Chick-fil-A Perks Up Fast Food with Industry’s First Gourmet Coffee Line and New Cinnamon Cluster

ATLANTA, GA -- 04/11/2005 -- Continuing to focus on enhancing its breakfast offerings and adding novel fast-food choices, Atlanta-based restaurant chain Chick-fil-A Inc. is brewing two new items that will be added to its morning menu this summer. On June 27, the chain will roll out its Café Blends Coffee line -- the fast food industry’s first premium coffee program -- along with its new Chick-fil-A® Cinnamon Cluster.

While the Chick-fil-A® Chicken Biscuit continues to be the chain’s signature breakfast entree, Chick-fil-A has made significant moves in recent months to enhance and diversify its breakfast options. In November, the 1,200-plus unit chain completed the first of a two-phased breakfast enhancement with the introduction of three new entrees, including a Breakfast Burrito; Chicken, Egg and Cheese Bagel Sandwich; Chick-fil-A® Chick-n-Minis™, and also began promoting its Fresh Fruit Cup (also an industry first that was introduced in May 2004) as a breakfast alternative.

“The breakfast daypart is an area where Chick-fil-A is responding to its customers,” said Woody Faulk, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of brand development. “As our customer base continues to grow, so does the variety of our customers’ appetites and preferences. Café Blends Coffee and the Cinnamon Cluster further broaden the appeal of our already diverse breakfast offerings, while maintaining the product quality and consistency customers have come to expect from Chick-fil-A.”

As part of its latest breakfast enhancement, Chick-fil-A strived to develop a quality coffee line that is up to par with the quality of its other menu items, as well as a complementary sweet item for customers who prefer sweeter breakfast options. Following is an overview of the new items:

Café Blends -- Available in three specialty blends, Coffeehouse Light, Bistro Dark and Expressly Decaf, Café Blends Coffee contains 100 percent, hand-picked Arabica coffees specially selected from Central and South America. The two blends were custom roasted for Chick-fil-A. Each flavor is available in three sizes, small (12oz.), medium (16 oz.) and large (20 oz.), ranging in price from $0.99 to $1.39. As Chick-fil-A is a popular catering choice, the chain also offers a 96 oz. container ideal for off-site breakfast orders.

Cinnamon Clusters -- Fresh-baked mini sweets, filled with sweet cinnamon, cream butter and whole eggs, with creamy vanilla icing. Served warm, the new Cinnamon Cluster is offered at $1.59, and will coincide with the Café Blends rollout on June 27.

Prior to making the decision to roll out its new breakfast options system wide, Chick-fil-A conducted an extensive, seven-month evaluation of the new products in 38 Chick-fil-A restaurants throughout Maryland, primarily in the Baltimore area.

Faulk says Chick-fil-A’s new coffee is not an attempt to compete with national coffee chains, but rather a move toward offering a good cup of coffee that complements the quality of its expanding breakfast products. “A good coffee program is the cornerstone of the breakfast daypart. We’re not trying to compete with specialty coffee shops that feature a variety of coffee drinks. We’re simply offering a great cup of coffee to go with our delicious breakfast choices, and rather than offering a host of lattes, espressos and cappuccinos, we’ve developed two blends that are brewed really well.”

Chick-fil-A anticipates that its latest breakfast additions will continue the upward sales trend that the chain has enjoyed since improving its breakfast menu. In January and February, Chick-fil-A’s new breakfast items fueled a 30-plus percent incremental sales increase over the same sales period in 2004. “We anticipate that our new coffee and Cinnamon Cluster will help sustain our current breakfast sales growth,” added Faulk.

The chain realized the potential of breakfast in the mid 1980s when it opened its first free-standing restaurants and introduced its now-famous Chick-fil-A® Chicken Biscuit. Before then, Chick-fil-A was a mall-based chain with limited breakfast choices. As its free-standing restaurant growth has now surpassed its mall locations, Chick-fil-A’s breakfast daypart currently accounts for more than 15 percent of the chain’s overall sales.

About Chick-fil-A Inc.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, Inc., the nation’s second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain (based on sales), currently has more than 1,200 restaurants in 38 states and Washington, D.C. Credited with inventing the chicken sandwich and first introducing the chicken nugget concept, Chick-fil-A serves nutritious and freshly prepared food products in malls, free-standing units, drive thru-only outlets, Chick-fil-A Dwarf House® and Truett’s Grill® full-service restaurants, and through licensed outlets in college campuses, hospitals, airports, businesses and industrial sites.

In 2004, Chick-fil-A reported system-wide sales of more than $1.746 billion, sustaining its 37-year-streak of consecutive sales gains. Chick-fil-A is a 10-time recipient of Restaurants & Institutions magazine’s Choice In Chains Customer Satisfaction award and, as reported in the October 2004 edition of QSR magazine, the chain has been recognized for the third consecutive year as having the “Best Drive-Thru in America.” More information about Chick-fil-A is available on the chain’s Web sites, located at www.chick-fil-a.com, www.chick-fil-apressroom.com or www.truettcathy.com.

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