Ikea to bring its chicken wings back from Monday

SINGAPORE — Ikea's chicken wings will be back on its menu from Monday (July 3), slightly over a month after the furniture giant removed the popular item from its two restaurants.

It promises to offer an improved recipe with longer 48-hour marination for greater flavour. The wings, which were withdrawn from sale on May 23 due to issues over size and quality, will now be of a more consistent size.

The retailer told TODAY earlier that it decided to stop the sale of its chicken wings after noticing its Malaysian supplier was sending smaller and smaller wings, which affected the taste and quality of the product.

It has since made a new agreement with the same supplier to ensure that the raw wings supplied will be between 100 and 120g each, up from the previous size of under 100g.

It had tried looking for a new supplier but was unable to find one who could produce the sheer volume it required.

“We’ve combed through a lot of possibilities for suppliers, but it really boils down to the volume we are looking at, because … only a few of the suppliers can meet such a huge volume of chicken wings,” an Ikea spokesperson told TODAY. “(They) have also reinforced quality requirements and agreements to ensure satisfactory wings are supplied.”

The two outlets in Alexandra and Tampines sell a total of 3.3 million chicken wings a year, or about 10,000 a day, with the Tampines restaurant being the busiest in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

To ensure that the wings are satisfactory, internal ad-hoc taste testing will be conducted for the first three months after the re-launch, the spokesman said, adding that a taste test had been done in mid-June with Ikea’s employees.

Monthly review meetings will also be held with the supplier to ensure that feedback are addressed appropriately.

“In addition, we will be closely monitoring our customers’ feedback through various platforms in order to understand if further improvements are required,” she added.

From July 3 to 7, dine-in customers at both outlets will be able to enjoy the wings at S$1 each, limited to two plates of six wings each, per person.