"We take the meats!"

The unmistakable Arby's tagline is voiced by Golden Globe–winning actor and unmistakable baritone Ving Rhames, who has saved the world time and again past crafting spy gadgets as Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible franchise. For Arby's, he presents "the meats"—an equally essential weapon in the fast food artillery race.

"Nosotros put a bold flag downward," says Jim Taylor, Arby's primary marketing officer, of the tagline that launched in 2014. "If you are someone with us, who shares a passion for high-quality meat cooked the right way as deliciously as possible, we're going to be a place you lot tin get an abundance of different types of meat as a centerpiece for every sandwich."

Indeed, in the historic period of plant-based Impossible burgers and Beyond Meat, Arby's has not only decided to resist the rising tide of veganism and flexitarianism, it'southward positioned carnivory as a "with us or against us" values system, going then far as to recently launch its first "megetable," which information technology called a "marrot"—a shameless troll of a carrot that's made entirely out of meat.

"Here's our philosophy: If you lot try to stand up for everything, yous cease up standing for aught," says Taylor, who also leads menu development (including megetables). "At some point you have to depict a line. This is what we're going to say our brand is all about. We made a conclusion [that] our brand is going to be about real meat, and there will be other people who become into found-based, but our true north is nosotros have the meats, and real meats."

To "have the meats" isn't just an existential anchor. A decade ago, it was a revenue lifeboat. Arby'south sales dropped 5.8% in 2008 and eight.2% farther in 2009. "Arby'southward functioning is amongst the worst in modern restaurant history," wrote a J.P. Morgan annotator in 2010. That year, equally sales and margins continued dropping with no turnaround in sight, the market began speculating that the chain would get upwards for auction—for as much as $600 million. In 2011, Arby's did indeed sell to a private equity group, but for a mere $130 million, less than half what the everyman estimates had wagered a twelvemonth earlier.

Arby's is currently run by Inspire Brands, which is bulk owned past affiliates of Roark Capital Group, investors in meatatarian brands including Buffalo Wild Wings, Hardee'south/Carl Jr.'due south, Sonic, and Culver'due south. The chain recruited Paul Brown from Hilton to become CEO in 2013, ushering in a new, flesh-based renaissance with same-store growth every year since, for a total of $3.9 billion in acquirement in 2018 (or nearly 4x what it fabricated in 2011). Under Dark-brown's leadership, Arby's at present offers eight dissimilar types of meat on the carte du jour all the time, and other varieties are featured in limited-time specials. A brisket sandwich, launched in 2013, contains meat that's hand-smoked by a multi-generation, family-run business in east Texas. Another sandwich layers bacon atop roast beef. Still another features thick-cutting pork abdomen. Arby'south even introduced paw-carved gyros nationwide, with a blend of beef and lamb sliced right off the spit.

Information technology'southward a strategy involving not just meat, but as Arby's dubs it, meats. Each menu particular requires Arby's to develop new expertise in sourcing products and preparing cuts in-house. Witness the company'due south button into selling game, which began when Arby'south launched a express-edition venison sandwich in 2016. The move was shocking to the press, largely considering blander options like beef and pork boss fast food menus, along with those of American restaurants in general.

"We said, in this world, who is passionate about meat? Who loves meat? Hunters," recounts Taylor. It was "a group that overindexed pretty hard with Arby'southward. And we thought, nosotros should do something for them." "Them" being the twenty 1000000 people in the U.S. who kill their own food only can but taste deer seasonally. Arby's marketed the new product with the tagline "Meat Flavour" and promoted information technology with a sign reading, "Yous say hunting, we say sandwich gathering."

[Photo: Maja Saphir for Fast Company]

Arby's sold ane,900 venison sandwiches in but 5 states during an extremely express launch in 2016. Some locations sold out in a thing of minutes. For the 2017 release, Arby's prepped a bigger inventory and sold venison nationwide for ane twenty-four hour period merely—during which time it moved an incredible 96,000 sandwiches. "We've tested elk, duck—in that location will be more of that along the mode," says Taylor.

There'southward no doubt that Arby's has plant success by highly-seasoned to meat eaters, but the formula does seem to discount that many people are eating animals more sparingly these days, whether it's for reasons of health, the environs, or ethics. Does Taylor worry about the fact that, between 2014 and 2017, Americans identifying as vegan grew 600%—to account for every bit much equally six% of the population? Or that plant-based alternatives to cheese, milk, and eggs grew 17% between 2017 and 2018 in an otherwise stagnant grocery market place?

Patently not. "We're never going to win over people looking to . . . swallow vegetarian meat," he says. "We're never going to be that choice." Plus, at that place's the opportunity cost of beingness another fast nutrient joint pushing simulated meat instead of the unique menu items at Arby'southward. "Let'southward speak to the 95% of the people who are out there versus the v% we don't take any right to win with anyway."

But what if trends continue, I ask. What about the world that'southward 5 or ten or xx years out? Maybe we produce less meat in order to meet strict carbon emissions goals. Perhaps we stop subsidizing cattle and dairy product. Wouldn't the Arby's strategy need to shift then?

"At least one-half the people 3,000 years from at present are still going to be eating meat," Taylor says with a chuckle. Then he clarifies, quite seriously, that even if 10% of people go vegan it doesn't business organisation him.

"What I've found, for long-term adoption in mainstream America, is 'How does it taste and what does it cost?' People are non going to pay more than for something that tastes worse. I've seen statistics where fourscore% to 85% of vegetarians come up back to eating meat as part of their lifestyle at some bespeak. Nosotros want to exist that place for people . . . coming back," Taylor says, laughing again. "That takes a stand at this day and age. Not highly-seasoned to vegetarians, in fact, makes usa stronger as a brand. Nosotros're 100% conveying a flag for meat-loving America."

[Photo: Maja Saphir for Fast Company]

Taylor knows his customers. Describing an Arby's fan as a flag-carrying member of "meat-loving America" or "someone with us" doesn't seem accidental. Inquiry shows that hunting skews conservative, while veganism and vegetarianism skew liberal. Too, selling a venison sandwich to hungry hunters is one thing; taunting vegans with veggies made of meat is quite another. "When I have a conversation with some of our cadre guests near what their favorite veggie is, it'south potatoes," Taylor laughs. "You probably never thought about eating a carrot hither, but how virtually a marrot?"

A whopping 77% of all Arby's locations in the U.South. can be found in states that voted for Trump in 2016. Put differently, there are three times as many Arby'southward stores in red states as in blue. McDonald's, by comparison, runs closer to a 50-fifty split up, with 58% of its restaurants in conservative-voting states, and 42% in liberal ones.

Similar all companies these days, Arby's is focused on building community. And it wants to make sure the meat on its plates stays red.

[Photos: courtesy of Arby's, Mykola Sosiukin/iStock (plate)]

This story is part ofFast Company's special coverage of "The New Business concern of Nutrient," in which nosotros explore how changes in civilisation, technology, and the environs are altering the nutrient industry's entire metabolism. Click here to read the whole serial.