Wendy’s International, Inc. today announced preliminary same-store sales of 3.1 percent at U.S. company stores and 2.7 percent at U.S. franchised restaurants for its fourth quarter, which ended on Sunday, December 31.

“We closed the year with same-store sales of 6.1 percent in December, which is our strongest month in two and a half years,” said Chief Executive Officer and President Kerrii Anderson. “We have made tremendous progress in improving our sales performance in the past three quarters, after a difficult first quarter. We are proud that we achieved positive same-store sales for the full year in 2006.

“We are also pleased that we finished the year with company store average unit volumes of $1.4 million, which equals the all-time high for Wendy’s®.”

In October, Wendy’s promoted its 99-cent junior bacon cheeseburger and 99-cent crispy chicken sandwich. Wendy’s promoted its new Double Melt cheeseburgers and also introduced a reloadable gift card program in November. During December, Wendy’s reintroduced its Chicken Club sandwich, featuring a chicken fillet, natural Swiss cheese, bacon, mayonnaise, tomato and lettuce on a Kaiser roll.

“Our strong promotional calendar, menu management, product innovation and improved marketing have been the driving forces behind the positive sales momentum we have generated over the past three quarters,” Anderson said. “We expect to see similar quarterly sales results in the coming year and anticipate a strong start in 2007.

“We are working diligently to improve all aspects of operations – friendliness, speed of service, order accuracy and cleanliness of our restaurants – to drive transactions during 2007,” Anderson said. “We believe the best way to improve the financial performance of our restaurants is with better operations.

“We also plan to invest approximately $60 million in 2007 to upgrade our existing company restaurants, in addition to the $25 million in incentives we will offer to franchisees who remodel their stores according to our standards,” Anderson said. “This is consistent with our previously announced plan to slow development and focus on driving sales and profits in our existing restaurants.”