(March 1, 2004) "A New Way to Eat" McDonald's presents "Fish McDippers," its new regular menu item Nationwide Launch on Monday, March 8, 2003 McDonald's Company (Japan), Ltd. (Headquarter: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, President: Yasuyuki Yagi) will launch its new regular menu item "Fish McDippers" nationwide on Monday, March 8, 2004. This is a new flagship item that will offer customers a new opportunity to enjoy McDonald's with a new style of food made of ingredients different from those of hamburgers. [Product features] New ingredient! Fish McDippers is pieces of white fish that are carefully boned, cut into bite-sized pieces for children and fried to a delicate crisp. Their rectangular shape is easy to pick up and dip with your fingers. The golden brown crumbs are crispy, and help scoop up the delicious dipping sauces. Fish McDippers is served with the sauce of your choice: a hot-sweet chili or tartar sauce. The sweet chili sauce is real Thai-style sauce with red pepper and garlic flavors, while the tartar sauce -- excellent with fish -- is soft and tender with the fresh texture of relish (minced pickles) and onions. A new style of eating! "Fish McDippers" is a "dipper," the noun form of the verb "to dip." The best way to enjoy a dipper is to dynamically dip a dipper into one of our original sauces for a generous helping of both. This dip-in style evokes the party style that doubles the joy of sharing food with your friends and family. [Marketing information] Product name: Fish McDippers Release date: Monday, March 8, 2004 Unit price: 220yen (excluding tax) for 6 pieces Marketable area: McDonald's restaurants in Japan (excluding some restaurants) [McDonald's new flagship menu item] The Fish McDippers was developed through the efforts of the Menu Management Team to develop a flagship menu item attracting widespread popularity in Asian countries through a strong regional effort. After elaborate research and repeated study, the team focused on the most popular ingredient in Asia: fish. Having developed various menu items in order to offer customers new styles of food that enhance the joy of eating, McDonald's next turned to an effort to create "a McDonald's new face", "new menu categories of McDonald's" not limited to the hamburger image and ingredients. These efforts culminated in the innovative Fish McDippers, with its all-new ingredient, fish, coupled with the new "dipping" eating style. The product will first be launched in a six-piece box as part of our main menu with sandwiches during the regular menu time period, and will be included the breakfast menu later. The product will also be offered in a 4-piece box and will be included in the Happy Meal menu in the future. We will position Fish McDippers as a core product with various marketing opportunities. We believe the product will please a wide variety of customers in a wide variety of situations both as a main dish and as a child-friendly menu item. << BACK