Yum! says flu won’t affect KFC revival plans

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New Delhi, Feb 21: Yum! Brands Inc, which owns the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell fast-food chains, will go ahead with its plans to revive the Kentucky Fried Chicken business in the country by the end of the year.

“We’re going ahead with our expansion plans,” Sandeep Kohli, managing director for the Indian subcontinent at the Dallas, Texas-based Yum! Restaurants International unit, said in a telephone interview from Gurgaon, yesterday.

“We have 12 outlets operating and we hope to double that by the end of the year. We’re looking to end the year with 25 KFC stores,” Mr Kohli said.

Customers’ concerns about avian flu have reduced sales in China, KFC’s fastest-growing market, in recent months. An outbreak reported in Maharashtra on February 18, had increased concerns about human infection, dropping sales at poultry farms around the country, and a ban on chicken imports by neighboring countries.

“It’s a bit early to say at the moment, but I’m sure there will be some impact,’’ Mr Kohli said about his company’s sales. Bird-flu outbreaks in other Asian markets have prepared the company, he said. “We know how to deal with it.”

New Delhi Municipal Corporation had earlier forced KFC to close its stores in the nation’s capital in 1995, citing inadequate hygiene levels. While a high court later over-ruled the civic agency, all KFC outlets were closed except the one in Bangalore, which had been attacked and vandalised by supporters of a farmers’ group.

A Bangalore court forced the KFC restaurant in the southern city to also shut down temporarily at the same time because its food exceeded the legal limits for the flavor-enhancing monosodium glutamate. The Indian federal government later raised the permitted levels of the additive to attract further investment from companies such as McDonald’s Corp, which was planning its entry into India.

The People For Ethical Treatment of Animals group had held peaceful demonstrations outside the Bangalore restaurant in August 2003, carrying placards that said ‘Quit India,’ to protest against the alleged ill-treatment of chickens in poultry farms that supply to KFC.