Rising chicken prices and other commodity costs won’t weigh on Wendy’s operations, but the fast-food chain is feeling the pinch of higher wages, CEO Todd Penegor said on CNBC Wednesday.
“From a commodity outlook perspective, because we’re largely locked in, we’re guiding flat to commodities this year, so we’re in a good spot there,” he told Jim Cramer in a “Mad Money” interview, adding the company is seeing a “little bit of pressure on labor — access to labor, cost to labor.”
The comments come as the latest inflation data showed consumer prices rose last month at the fastest rate in more than a decade. The Labor Department reported earlier Wednesday that the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, shot up 4.2% from a year ago, higher than economists projected.
Wendy’s also reported first-quarter earnings before the market opened. The company said it generated $460 million of revenue and earned 20 cents per share, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $445 million and 20 cents, according to FactSet.
In the quarter that ended April 4, global same-store sales rose 13% from a year ago.
Shares of Wendy’s declined 1.40% to $22.48 as part of a broader market sell-off.
