Fast food marketer Wendy's has had its share of problems over the past 18 months. The company has suffered from new product flops as well as the infamous finger-in-the-chili hoax that turned into a
public relations nightmare. But the company is now showing signs of improvement, announcing this week that April was the first month in the past 14 with sales growth from the year-earlier month,
thanks mostly to the rollout of its new Frescata deli sandwiches. "Wendy's is bruised but not broken," says Peter Oakes, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. The new provided a much-needed
psychological boost for Wendy's, which prior to 2005 enjoyed18 consecutive years of same-store sales growth before the roof fell in. Market share fell from 14.5% in 2003 to 13.6% in 2005, with each
0.1% of share translating into $56.3 million in sales. To return to glory, the marketer is relying on new interim CEO Kerrii Anderson to engineer a strategy calling for a razor-sharp focus on the
Wendy's brand -- products, operations, marketing -- to re-energize growth. For example, the Wendy's new-products lab's pipeline is no longer empty: 70 potential products are under development,
including items for a hefty breakfast menu to back Wendy's tentative decision to jump back into that competitive market. "We have to work hard to regain the momentum we lost," says Anderson, 48, an
overachiever who thought nothing of driving a tractor on her father's North Carolina tobacco farm at age 5 and a school bus at 16
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