Yum Restaurants International says KFC sales in Thailand up 10% in first 10 months of 2013, slightly less than expected; company to spend 50M baht to promote its new chicken menus in hopes of maintaining its sales momentum through rest of year

Nevin Barich

BANGKOK , November 26, 2013 (Bangkok Post) – Yum Restaurants International (Thailand) Co says sales of KFC fast-food restaurants will slightly miss its 2013 target but still be higher than industry growth.

Thunyachate Ekvetchavit, marketing director for KFC, said sales in the first 10 months of this year grew by 10%, slightly less than expected. However, the 30-billion-baht quick-service restaurant sector grew by only 7% in the same period.

To maintain its sales momentum in the last two months, the company will spend 50 million baht to promote its new chicken menus, which will be launched on Friday.

Mr Thunyachate said Thailand's political unrest is not affecting its business because the company has almost 500 KFC restaurants across the country, so customers have many locations to choose from.

The company is optimistic about the economy next year after seeing a slight rebound in export business.

It plans to spend almost 2 billion baht next year to open 50 KFC outlets. The new restaurants will take its number of branches to 550, with sales growth of 15%.

"Local politics is not a major factor to affect fast-food business. Though the political problems will prolong, we are ready to continue our investment because the country still has strong economic fundamentals," he said.

"The gradual improvement of the export sector will benefit and drive growth of fast-food business next year."

___

(c)2013 the Bangkok Post (Bangkok, Thailand)

Visit the Bangkok Post (Bangkok, Thailand) at www.bangkokpost.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.