Why KFC Can't Replicate Its China Success Here
By Jonathan Maze, January 11, 2011
KFC is almost two different brands under one name. There's the one most of you are used to, the bone-in chicken-in-a-bucket QSR that is in the U.S. And there's the one that operates in countries like China, where KFC sells more than just chicken, and where it has a successful breakfast daypart and delivery service. Not surprisingly, KFC is doing a lot better in China than in the U.S. So why can't KFC do here what it did there? The answer: It would love to, it just can't right now. Steve Schmitt, director of investor relations for KFC parent Yum! Brands, said at the Cowen and Company Consumer Conference that the brand needs "to fix what we have here first." And Tim Jerzyk, vice president of investor relations, said that "operations are nowhere near as good in the U.S. as they are in China." They also alluded to challenges getting ideas past franchisees, which own the vast majority of U.S. units, and pointed to controversy surrounding its introduction of grilled chicken.
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