30 years on, KFC Thailand going strong

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30 years on, KFC Thailand going strong
Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn
The Nation


Thanyachete Ekvetchavit, left, marketing director of KFC, Yum Restaurants International (Thailand), and Chainarong Lerlertvanich, right, general manager of KFC, Central Restaurants Group, together with KFC

Yum Restaurants launches expansion, renovation campaign

BANGKOK: -- Yum Restaurants International (Thailand) is overhauling its KFC businesses in Thailand by expanding stores and refreshing its brand.

Marketing director Thanyachete Ekvetchavit said KFC restaurants had operated in Thailand for 30 years and about 300 now were operated and owned by the company, while another 200 were run by its local franchisee Central Restaurants Group.

Thailand is the second-largest market in the world behind China in terms of the number of the company-owned KFC restaurants, with Yum Restaurants looking to increase the number of businesses here to 800 by 2020.

In China, Yum Restaurants owns and operates about 5,000 outlets.

There are also about 5,000 restaurants in the United States and most of them are franchise stores, while there are some 20,000 restaurants in 120 countries.

"We will invest about Bt2.2 billion in the KFC business in Thailand this year, of which Bt700 will be allocated in marketing activities and Bt1.5 billion for new store expansions and renovations of existing restaurants," Thanyachete said.

"At least 50 new KFC restaurants will be opened this year and more than half of them will be upcountry.

"Between 70 and 80 per cent of KFC's restaurants will be located in shopping malls and hypermarkets."

He added that about 30 existing restaurants would be renovated this year.

The company has opened its first KFC drive-through restaurant on Srinakarin Road and another two drive-throughs will be opened this month, one in Pathum Thani and one on Ratchaphruek Road in Bangkok.

About 10 drive-through restaurants are slated to open this year, both in standalone format and at malls.

"We would like to modernise our KFC brand and connect them with digital and other kinds of technology, such as e-commerce," Thanyachete said.

"We want the KFC brand to be modern and dynamic. Our focus on marketing activities will be shifted from traditional to digital media."

Thanyachete said this was in line with the company's strategy to retain its existing customers, including teenagers, and to attract new clients who are young adults in their first job.

With the urbanisation of society, young Thais have enjoyed more options offered by new competitors in the marketplace, such as buffets and Japanese restaurants.

In 2013, KFC restaurants posted 5-per-cent growth in annual sales and 10-per-cent growth in its delivery service.

"About 35 per cent of our clients using our delivery service order online and the rest by telephone," he said.

"We have seen greater potential in online ordering, which should increase to 50 per cent [of delivery orders] in the future, which is in line with the increasing number of smart phones in the future."

Yum Restaurants has launched a KFC Thailand 30th-anniversary campaign to repay customers for its success. The highlight of the campaign is the chance to win a seven-day trip to the home town in Kentucky of KFC's late founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

The trip is worth Bt1.3 million and the campaign runs until April 30.


-- The Nation 2014-04-08

[rametindallas]

I took my wife to a KFC on our first date and she was delighted. Now she is too hi-so to be caught dead in a KFC. I still have it a couple times a year; prefer Thai food. Do Brits and Aussies have chains similar to what they have in the US? If so, which are represented in the Kingdom? I really don't want to look at American chain stores in Thailand but would be interested in some British or Australian food.

[zydeco]

Okay, never eat at a KFC. But the same company, Yum, owns Taco Bell. And I would love to start seeing a chain of Taco Bell's pop up in every mall.

[canopy]

I bet not many people don't know that in America KFC is no longer even the biggest chicken fast food restaurant like it used to be.

If you ever want a good laugh, order a "bucket" of chicken at KFC.There is barely enough chicken to cover the bottom and it looks pretty empty. They make the buckets many times bigger than they need to be and have the audacity to back it up with pictures showing chicken brimming over the top. I would love to see them demonstrate that feat in real life. Really false advertising and surprised no one has taken them to task over it.

[NongKhaiKid]

This sounds like a TAT press release.

[jalansanitwong]

The KFC chicken in a bucket deal is an age old scam. False or misleading advertising .

Why buy KFC anyway? Plenty of Thais on the soi's sell fried chicken that tastes similar.

[JeremyBowskill]

Hardly surprising KFC is popular in Thailand, fried rat is an essan favorite.

[AhFarangJa]

Bet a lot of their customers haven't lasted eating fried chicken for 30 years..

[Thaddeus]

Bring back transfats, bad for the body, good for the taste buds.

[jamhar]

I'd be happy if they would start putting all 11 of the secret herbs and spices back here in TL

The stuff in TL tastes different from what I ate in the US.

It still tastes good mind you. Just not as good as it is back in the US.

[wolfmanjack]

I bet not many people don't know that in America KFC is no longer even the biggest chicken fast food restaurant like it used to be.

If you ever want a good laugh, order a "bucket" of chicken at KFC.There is barely enough chicken to cover the bottom and it looks pretty empty. They make the buckets many times bigger than they need to be and have the audacity to back it up with pictures showing chicken brimming over the top. I would love to see them demonstrate that feat in real life. Really false advertising and surprised no one has taken them to task over it.

The pieces of chicken you get are a lot smaller now than they used to be and that was smaller than what i remember getting in the USA.

[KC 71]

Is that Rolf Harris !

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[wolfmanjack]

I'd be happy if they would start putting all 11 of the secret herbs and spices back here in TL

The stuff in TL tastes different from what I ate in the US.

It still tastes good mind you. Just not as good as it is back in the US.

I agree. The KFC in the USA tasted better and had bigger pieces of chicken.

I liked the biscuits which they don't have in thailand.

The KFC in the USA also had an all you can eat buffet which thailand does not have.

[Siripon]

Dreadful junk food using chickens kept in barbaric conditions. Anyone working for such a cruel company deserves to be reborn as a factory farmed chicken.

Their life will be short, uncomfortable and probably painful.

[NongKhaiKid]

Hardly surprising KFC is popular in Thailand, fried rat is an essan favorite.

" A bucket of fried rat please and coleslaw ".

Oooh, that's KFC crossed off my TO DO list.

[NongKhaiKid]

Is that Rolf Harris !

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Unlikely as he's flanked by adults

[zydeco]

Just be happy it still tastes like chicken.

[Luk Mhee]

Too much batter, that lets the chicken look big. (Remove the batter and see what I mean)

They don’t use the 11 herbs, which takes the original taste away.

The chickens tough, possibly not farmed chicken, but local village chicken bought at half price.

Lunch hour, the shops full of customers, but only 2 of the 5 tills are working, after rush hour, 4 of the 5 tills are working.

French fries, they wait until the last packet has been sold, then only do they fry the new batch. Result; customer waits for over 15 minutes before getting his fries. The same goes for the chicken.

[geriatrickid]

Interesting to note that KFC was forced to remove transfat from its cooking oil formula in North America and the EU.

And in Thailand………………….

I used to like KFC, but the poultry supply chain leaves a lot to be desired. I seem to have gotten ill after my last 3 visits in the past year. Not serious, just, to the point where I ask, why did I buy that? It's incredibly greasy stuff and not good for one's arteries.

[johnnysunshine]

Ironic that I am posting about Kentucky Friend Crap while watching Kentucky play U. of Conn. in the Final Four for the NCAA Championship.

KFC is well known in America in the inner circle (of those who care about what goes in their body) as putrid poison and none of us would be caught dead eating this crap. Nothing healthy about this "chicken" and lots of questions out there regarding whether or not it is really chicken. If it is, be assured you are getting the cheapest possible sourced chicken anywhere (to ensure greater profits of course) and a steady diet of this may have less than desirable results.

GIVE US A BREAK TODAY!

[attrayant]

Dreadful junk food using chickens kept in barbaric conditions. Anyone working for such a cruel company deserves to be reborn as a factory farmed chicken.

Their life will be short, uncomfortable and probably painful.

You seem to be under the impression that KFC raises all of its own chickens. KFC neither owns nor operates vast acres of chicken farms and poultry processing plants. They are a wholesale consumer of chicken meat, and that's all. They buy their chicken (just as McDonald's buys its beef, Subway buys its vegetables, and so on) from the same suppliers who serve many other customers.

[JeremyBowskill]

Is that Rolf Harris !

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Pedo-klansman, now there's a scary beast!

Edited April 8, 2014 by JeremyBowskill

[attrayant]

I would love to see KFC get into the burger business. McDonald's offers chicken, why doesn't KFC offer burgers?

[laurentbkk]

30 years ? that can explain why so many locals are getting fat ... thanks to the American junk food , when you see how fat they are in the US ... you would understand the danger of junk food.

[Kooweerup]

Expanding stores and refreshing IT,s brand.

I always thought KFC was American and not Thai.

[Kooweerup]

I would love to see KFC get into the burger business. McDonald's offers chicken, why doesn't KFC offer burgers?

They do.

[DrTuner]

Hardly surprising KFC is popular in Thailand, fried rat is an essan favorite.

There's a lot more meat in them rats than the fried batter with a hint of chicken at KFC.

[attrayant]

I would love to see KFC get into the burger business. McDonald's offers chicken, why doesn't KFC offer burgers?

They do.

No, they don't. At least not any of the half-dozen I've been to.

[edit]

Okay I've just looked at their online menu and I see that they are calling a chicken sandwich a "burger". What most Americans mean when they say burger (and what I was referring to in my post) is a hamburger made from beef, not a chicken sandwich. That's why I drew the comparison to McDonald's.

I suppose I'll need to be more careful in the future when talking about burgers, in the same way that a shake isn't really a shake here - it's a fruit smoothie.

[one more edit] I see they're calling a burrito a burger too... I give up. Tinglish!

Edited April 8, 2014 by attrayant

[Kooweerup]

I'd be happy if they would start putting all 11 of the secret herbs and spices back here in TL

The stuff in TL tastes different from what I ate in the US.

It still tastes good mind you. Just not as good as it is back in the US.

totally different to what you get in Australia also. I notice with their burgers in Thailand they use the dark chewy meat and in Australia they use the white tender breast. I guess it made for the thai taste buds just like thai food back home is very very different to what you get in Thailand.

[MMarlow]

I would love to see KFC get into the burger business. McDonald's offers chicken, why doesn't KFC offer burgers?

They do.