Ivan Schofield - Why KFC chose France
- il y a 11 ans
KFC is a quick service restaurant brand which specializes in chicken. The brand has existed for over than 70 years, it was founded in the United-States and we have been in France since 1991. Ivan Schofield, General Manager France, tells us why they chose to develop in France.
Can you tell us about KFC?
KFC is part of Yum! Brands, Inc., which is the world’s largest restaurant company, with 39,000 restaurants in 125 countries around the world and 1.4 million employees.
KFC is a quick service restaurant brand that specializes in chicken. The brand has existed for over 70 years; it was founded in the United States, and we have been in France since 1991. With KFC in France, we developed with company-owned restaurants and franchise-owned restaurants. Our franchise partners are entrepreneurs but they also do a fantastic job serving our customers, looking after employees and partnering with us to build the brand here in France.
Is France a good place for innovation?
When KFC started in France, it was really very small, a niche brand. Today, it’s a mainstream national brand. We have been able to do this because we made the brand more appealing to French customers – through innovating in terms of the retail experience but also, importantly, in the product range. So today, if you look at our product range on sale in restaurants in France, in every single transaction that we have with our customers, there is a product which was invented by the French team.
At KFC we only serve freshly prepared chicken products. Some of them are breaded, some of them are cooked in ovens. These products are then presented in various different forms, we have products like “The B.O.S.S.” and the “BoxMaster”, which were developed in France based on our chicken recipes that you can find everywhere in the world. But we also have more traditional product offerings like the bucket of chicken, which is known throughout the world and that is very, very successful here in France as well.
Why did you choose to develop KFC in France?
We chose to develop KFC in France for two principal reasons. The first is that we see relatively little competition in the category. The second is that we know we have a very powerful brand. France has become a center of innovation for KFC in Western Europe and in fact the globe. The reason for that is that we have highly passionate teams. They are also great marketers and have a really good sense of food taste and of what customers want.
What kind of partnerships do you have in France?
KFC sees itself as a big organization with a big heart. First of all, KFC creates lot of jobs; we have created 7,500 jobs in France in the last 10 years. But as a company, we like to give back to the community as well. Yum! Brands, Inc. is the number one contributor to the United Nations World Food Programme and KFC France also makes a significant contribution. But we also have a very strong partnership with a French charity called Les Restos du Coeur so we can give something back to the local community.
What are KFC’s future plans in France?
Competitive environments are tough for us everywhere in the world and France is no exception. But we know we have a very strong brand and if we can build a really strong organization, we know we can succeed. We have a terrific team of people here in France. They provide great service to our customers and those people who are based in our head office provide great service to the restaurants and our franchise partners. Thanks to the work they are doing, there is no doubt in my mind that one day, we will have a very, very big business here in France.
Can you tell us about KFC?
KFC is part of Yum! Brands, Inc., which is the world’s largest restaurant company, with 39,000 restaurants in 125 countries around the world and 1.4 million employees.
KFC is a quick service restaurant brand that specializes in chicken. The brand has existed for over 70 years; it was founded in the United States, and we have been in France since 1991. With KFC in France, we developed with company-owned restaurants and franchise-owned restaurants. Our franchise partners are entrepreneurs but they also do a fantastic job serving our customers, looking after employees and partnering with us to build the brand here in France.
Is France a good place for innovation?
When KFC started in France, it was really very small, a niche brand. Today, it’s a mainstream national brand. We have been able to do this because we made the brand more appealing to French customers – through innovating in terms of the retail experience but also, importantly, in the product range. So today, if you look at our product range on sale in restaurants in France, in every single transaction that we have with our customers, there is a product which was invented by the French team.
At KFC we only serve freshly prepared chicken products. Some of them are breaded, some of them are cooked in ovens. These products are then presented in various different forms, we have products like “The B.O.S.S.” and the “BoxMaster”, which were developed in France based on our chicken recipes that you can find everywhere in the world. But we also have more traditional product offerings like the bucket of chicken, which is known throughout the world and that is very, very successful here in France as well.
Why did you choose to develop KFC in France?
We chose to develop KFC in France for two principal reasons. The first is that we see relatively little competition in the category. The second is that we know we have a very powerful brand. France has become a center of innovation for KFC in Western Europe and in fact the globe. The reason for that is that we have highly passionate teams. They are also great marketers and have a really good sense of food taste and of what customers want.
What kind of partnerships do you have in France?
KFC sees itself as a big organization with a big heart. First of all, KFC creates lot of jobs; we have created 7,500 jobs in France in the last 10 years. But as a company, we like to give back to the community as well. Yum! Brands, Inc. is the number one contributor to the United Nations World Food Programme and KFC France also makes a significant contribution. But we also have a very strong partnership with a French charity called Les Restos du Coeur so we can give something back to the local community.
What are KFC’s future plans in France?
Competitive environments are tough for us everywhere in the world and France is no exception. But we know we have a very strong brand and if we can build a really strong organization, we know we can succeed. We have a terrific team of people here in France. They provide great service to our customers and those people who are based in our head office provide great service to the restaurants and our franchise partners. Thanks to the work they are doing, there is no doubt in my mind that one day, we will have a very, very big business here in France.