Yum Brands, owner of the KFC fast-food chain, has issued a belated apology to consumers in China for the way it handled a recent food scare, underlining the struggles that the US company faces in the increasingly competitive Chinese market.
Yum, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut in China, is the biggest foreign restaurateur in the country by sales, dominating even McDonald’s in the fast-food market. It arrived in China earlier than other fast-food brands, and has long been seen as a model of how to localise a foreign brand while marketing its food as safer and of higher quality than that of local restaurants.
Last month’s food scare, prompted by a state television report saying that some chickens supplied to KFC and McDonald’s had excessive amounts of antiviral drugs and growth hormones, hit sales hard. Some consumers called for a boycott of the company on Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging site.