McDonald's to create spinoff restaurant CosMc's after Grimace marketing success

July 27 (UPI) -- McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski revealed in an investors earning call Thursday that the fast-food giant will create a spinoff restaurant chain named CosMc's that will have "its own unique personality."

"CosMc's is a small format concept with all the DNA of McDonald's, but with its own unique personality," Kempczinski said during the second-quarter earnings call, without giving away many details.

Kempczinski said the company expects a few test locations early next year in a limited geographical area. The company expects to reveal more of its plans in December.

The name for the new brand comes from a character named CosMc, a robotic alien, that appeared in a few McDonald's commercials in the late 1980s.

In one such advertisement from 1987, Ronald McDonald is walking with Grimace and the Professor -- two other McDonaldland characters -- when CosMc crash lands into their path and makes off with their food when invited to join them on a picnic.

McDonald's has apparently decided to revive the character after the success of the Grimace Birthday Meal -- a promotional limited-time meal that included a purple milkshake.

"This quarter the theme was, well if I'm being honest, the theme was Grimace," Kempczinski said on the earnings call. "I mean, Grimace has been everywhere the past few months."