McDonald's to start $1 breakfast menu next year

McDonald's Corp., the world's biggest restaurant company, plans to offer a $1 breakfast menu for the first time nationally in January to help boost sales that have been damped by unemployment.

The menu, which will be advertised nationally, will feature for a dollar any of five items, a sausage McMuffin, sausage biscuit, sausage burrito, hash browns and a 12-ounce cup of coffee, Danya Proud, a company spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview today. Some markets may choose to offer two hash browns and a larger coffee, Proud said.

The Oak Brook-based company also is introducing a wrap version of its Big Mac sandwich, named Mac Snack Wrap, across the country this week. Its suggested retail price is $1.49 versus an average $3 for the original, she said.

"McDonald's and our franchises recognize now more than ever that our customers are looking for unprecedented value across our menu every day," Proud said.

The breakfast menu will complement the regular dollar menu, which it launched in 2003, and has eight items each priced at a dollar, she said. The dollar menu accounts for 10 percent of sales, the company said in July.

Breakfast accounts for about 25 percent of McDonald's sales in the U.S., said Jeffrey Farmer, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Boston. He recommends holding the stock.

"Breakfast has been one of the most vulnerable day parts and they need to protect that," Farmer said. "They've never lost money on any of the items on that dollar menu, so they're not going to lose money on this."

McDonald's rose 45 cents to $61.05 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has lost 1.8 percent this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported the story earlier today.