Taco Bell’s Chief Executive Sean Tresvant sees an opportunity for the QSR to home in on beverages and chicken. He plans for those items to play a bigger role in Taco Bell’s business by focusing on marketing efforts to younger consumers, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Chicken reportedly makes up 40% of Taco Bell’s orders these days, up from last year’s 25%. The chain now sells bowls with slow-roasted chicken and offers crispy strips in tacos and burritos. Chicken nuggets, which Taco Bell tested this year, are set to join the permanent menu in 2026.
Taco Bell’s chicken sales have grown 50% from 2023 and are on pace to double to $5 billion by 2030, the Journal said.
The CEO also said there are billions of dollars in additional beverage sales that the restaurant chain can capture. The company is building “Live Más Cafés” within existing Taco Bell locations to promote drinks, carrying 30 beverages geared toward younger consumers. Taco Bell plans to open 30 Live Más Cafés this year.
When Tresvant became Taco Bell’s CEO last year, “he felt the brand was trying to market to too many different consumers and decided to pursue a more-focused approach. He has his eye on customers ages 18 to 30—Gen Z, more or less. An estimated 9% of Taco Bell customers qualify as Gen Z, up from 7% in 2023, according to market-research firm Numerator,” wrote WSJ.
Younger consumers have been pushing the extreme growth in experiential beverages recently. McDonald’s drink-forward spinoff CosMc’s originally opened in December 2023, but the QSR recently announced it would closing all five of the locations.
In the August 2024 NACS Magazine article “Beyond Taste”, NACS looked at the demand for experiential beverages. Retailers like Sheetz for example offer boba mango popping bubbles that can be added to a Sheetz Refresherz drink for $1.79.