Almost 650 out of KFC’s 900 restaurants were open for business by mid-afternoon on Wednesday (21st February) according to the company’s web site as deliveries continued to ramp up.
That compares to about half of the total open 24 hours before.
Delivery problems came to light following the switch of the logistics contract from Bidvest to DHL, which is working with partner Quick Service Logistics (QSL).
KFC took to Twitter yesterday to provide customers with an update saying: “We changed our delivery partner last week – Valentine’s Day actually. But Cupid’s arrow wasn’t firing for us, and we’ve run into some complicated distribution problems.”
A statement from DHL on Tuesday said: “The reasons for this unforeseen interruption of this complex service are being worked on with a goal to return to normal service levels as soon as possible. With the help of our partner QSL, we are committed to step by step improvements to allow KFC to re-open its stores over the coming days.”
The GMB union has called on KFC and DHL to join forces to make sure affected workers are paid for the hours they’ve lost. KFC said that hourly paid team members in KFC-owned restaurants will be paid on the basis of the average hours they have worked over the previous 12 weeks or they can take holiday. Franchisees were taking independent advice, but KFC said nine out of ten team members would not be worse off. “Were ensuring we everything possible for the remaining ten per cent,” it said.
The “chicken crisis” has prompted a frenzy of activity on social media:
https://twitter.com/R_Sanderson1952/status/965662452384980996
https://twitter.com/JezH2O/status/965663239999840256
https://twitter.com/MarkDHogan63/status/965657654872899584
Even the police got involved:
Please do not contact us about the #KFCCrisis – it is not a police matter if your favourite eatery is not serving the menu that you desire.
— Tower Hamlets Police (@MPSTowerHam) February 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/GMPWhitefield/status/966067402013364225
