• Marketplace, Wednesday, October 6, 2010 10:31 AM

Sixty percent of the fast food industry's growth the past five years has come from breakfast, Kai Ryssdal reports in the introduction to this piece, so it's no wonder that Wendy's is testing a menu to get its fair share. But it has tried to do that two times before, Peter O'Dowd reports. Wendy's CMO Ken Calwell thinks he knows why.

"The food took too long to make," he tells O'Dowd. "And it didn't taste good enough."

For this iteration, currently in test in three markets, there are goodies such as toasted egg sandwiches, paninis, smoked bacon and fresh orange juice. Calwell hopes all 6,300 Wendy's nationwide will be serving breakfast by the end of next year, but first he's got to convince franchisees that the third time will be a charm. That means profitable.

Morningstar analyst Joscelyn MacKay thinks it's a smart move. "Being in the breakfast day part for any quick-service restaurant right now is going to be the key to driving your sales forward especially as we're still languishing in the doldrums of a weak economy," MacKay says.

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