Day: February 15, 2024

Wendy’s has a new cinnamon-y item coming to its breakfast menu.

That new offering is the Cinnabon Pull-Apart, a sweet breakfast option that “takes the nostalgic, classic cinnamon roll and transforms the ooey-gooey center into bite-sized pieces,” Wendy’s said Wednesday. It worked with Cinnabon on the sweet treat.

Wendy’s described it as the “perfect complement to any of our savory breakfast items.”

WENDY’S INTRODUCES NEW BREAKFAST BURRITO: ‘A PORTABLE MASTERPIECE’

The fast-food chain linked the soon-to-debut Cinnabon Pull-Apart to the upcoming four-year anniversary of rolling out its breakfast menu. It is also meant to help further boost Wendy’s breakfast business.

CEO Kirk Tanner on Thursday told analysts and investors that Wendy’s breakfast daypart “is one of the most compelling levers when considering sales growth and margin acceleration opportunities.”

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The Cinnabon Pull-Apart starts appearing as an option on Wendy’s breakfast menus around the country on Feb. 26, the fast-food chain said. Wendy’s restaurants typically offer breakfast until 10:30 a.m.

The fast-food chain’s footprint in the U.S. includes about 6,000 locations, according to its website.

The global Wendy’s restaurant system saw its sales increase by 6.1% in 2023, the fast-food chain reported Thursday.

The company generated total revenues of $2.18 billion in 2023, marking a 4% year-over-year increase. Its net income for the year widened, hitting $204.4 million.

WENDY’S ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR UNDERGROUND AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS TO DELIVER FOOD ORDERS TO VEHICLES

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The CEOs of leading U.S. automakers Ford and GM signaled Thursday they’re open to considering partnerships to lower the cost of electric vehicle technology to compete with low-cost Chinese EVs looking to the U.S. and European markets.

“If there’s ways that we can partner with others, especially on technologies that are not consumer-facing, and be more efficient with R&D as well as capital, we’re all in,” GM CEO Mary Barra told investors at a conference sponsored by Wolfe Research.

Ford CEO Jim Farley also opened the door to collaborating with other automakers on cutting EV battery costs during a separate presentation at the conference Thursday.

The Detroit companies and other Western automakers are facing increasing competition from BYD and low-cost Chinese EV makers that are stepping up their exports of vehicles to Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

FORD’S PROFITS GETTING EATEN UP BY EVS

BYD is weighing the construction of an assembly plant in Mexico that could serve as a platform to ship EVs to the U.S., according to a report by Nikkei earlier this week.

“If you cannot compete fair and square with the Chinese around the world, then 20% to 30% of your revenue is at risk” over the next several years, Farley said.

In its latest earnings report, Ford projected a loss of $5 billion to $5.5 billion on its EV division this year. The company launched a “skunk works” team separate from its main engineering unit that’s focused on designing a small, low-cost EV that could compete with BYD’s Seagull model. 

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Ford is also reevaluating its battery strategy as it looks to make its EV offerings more economical.

“We can start having a competitive battery situation. We can go to common cylindrical cells that could add a lot of leverage to our purchasing capability,” Farley said. “Maybe we should do (this) with another OEM (automaker).”

Farley said BYD can produce its small Seagull EV for $9,000 to $11,000. Wolfe Research analyst Rod Lache said he estimates Chinese production costs are 30% lower than Western automakers’ costs.

“Last year, 25% of all vehicles sold in Mexico were sourced in China. The world is changing,” Farley said.

FORD CONSIDERS AXING CAR FEATURE THAT COULD SAVE COMPANY MILLIONS PER YEAR

Farley indicated Ford’s goal for a new EV is to make it profitable within the first year, saying he told the company’s engineers, “You have to make money in the first 12 months. If you can’t make money, we aren’t launching the car.”

Barra said GM is already well-positioned to begin breaking even on its North American EVs during the second half of this year if it can reach an annualized production rate of 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles and continue to benefit from federal EV subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act.

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GM missed its 2023 North American EV production targets in part because of problems manufacturing battery modules.

“I own that,” Barra said. 

She said GM is now on track to overcome those problems as well as fix software glitches that impacted the launch of the Chevrolet Blazer EV this year.

Barra said that, in China, GM’s brands will focus on premium and higher-priced segments as Chinese automakers focus on mainstream market segments.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Former President Donald Trump’s media company, which operates his Truth Social site, has received approval for the merger with a purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., that would make the website a publicly traded entity and yield millions of dollars. 

DWAC said the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission signed off on its registration statement and that the shareholder vote date would be announced within two days to vote on the merger, according to an SEC filing on Wednesday.

“We are immensely proud of the strides we’ve taken towards advancing the Business Combination,” Eric Swider, CEO of Digital World, said in a statement included in the filing. “This achievement marks a significant milestone for us. Our sincere thanks go to our shareholders for their unwavering support. We are excited to soon share the news of the Business Combination’s approval process with them.”

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Should the merger go through, Trump would hold more than 78 million shares, which would be worth nearly $4 billion at current prices. 

Trump, who would own between 58% and 69% of the company, and other investors could earn tens of millions more shares per a provision, known as an “earnout,” tied to the stock’s performance, a filing said, The Washington Post reported. 

In a Wednesday statement, former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes said Digital World’s aim is “to accelerate our work to build a free speech highway outside the stifling stranglehold of Big Tech,” according to the Post. 

Despite the apparent victory for Trump, the merger could face resistance from Trump Media’s co-founders, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, whose investment company, United Atlantic Ventures, has threatened to block the move. 

That company sent letters to Digital World claiming its initial agreement with Trump from 2021 was still in effect and granted them the rights to appoint two directors to the board and to receive a $1 million reimbursement claim, a filing said.

Digital World has also disclosed that former CEO Patrick Orlando may hold up the deal because he wants to receive additional compensation, Reuters reported.

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Trump has 6.61 million followers on Truth Social, compared to the more than 88 million followers he had on X when the platform permanently suspended him. 

He currently has 87.4 million followers on that platform.

FOX Business has reached out to Truth Social. 

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