A company in northwest Iowa is partnering with a national fast food chain to create a new sandwich. Curly’s Foods, based in Sioux City, is providing the meat for Burger King’s new Memphis Bar-B-Q Pulled Pork Sandwich.
Duane Diez, Curly’s vice president of purchasing, says the deal started to materialize in February when the chain asked for a 20-pound sample of the company’s pulled pork. “And they liked it, then a little while later, they asked for a thousand pounds to run a store test somewhere in Ohio,” Diez says.
“Evidently, that went over pretty good and in March they gave us an order for about 800,000 pounds.” Diez says Curly’s also has one more product that’s being used in the sandwich. “They’re using our standard hickory-smoked pulled pork with our Curly’s barbeque sauce that’s added,” he says, “and then they add their Southern cole slaw-style sauce to it and the onions at the restaurant.”
Diez says the sandwich went on sale at Burger Kings across America on Sunday. “They actually had a practice week last week making sandwiches and then it’s out everywhere this week and so far, sales have been pretty brisk,” he says. Diez hopes Curly’s will have a long-term partnership with Burger King.
The Memphis Bar-B-Q Pulled Pork Sandwich will not be a permanent addition to the menu, but will only be on sale for a limited time.
By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City
