CASE STUDY: KFC in China
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)- one of the most known fast food chains in the world started in the early 1930's by Kernel Sanders in the Southern USA as a small franchise operation. Colonel Sanders has become a well known personality throughout thousands of KFC restaurants World wide. Quality, service and cleanliness (QSC)represents the most critical success factors to KFC's global success.
Throughout its 35-year history, the company has gone through several stages and has answered to a legion of corporate parents from Heublein to R.J. Reynolds. The most significant stage was when the enterprise was sold to the American giant, Hubelin International in 1974. Rapid growth throughout the use of franchising together
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A wholly owned subsidiary represents the second option. Such a strategy relies upon total control over competitive advantages and ensures complete operational and strategic control. It also involves high investment expenses with no financial risk sharing. With high levels of resource commitment and little country-level flexibility and responsiveness, this option is not recommended.
RECOMMENDED MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY: JOINT VENTURE
When KFC first went into the Japanese market in the early 1970's, the company chose to form a joint venture with a large scale poultry producer with excess capacity. This 50/50 joint venture served the two partners very well, as KFC was able to ensure a stable supply of quality supplies to its operations, and the local corporation was able increase efficiencies in production by selling its excess supply. Furthermore, KFC was able to utilize existing distribution networks serviced by the partner and at the same time, adhere to exiting rules and regulations imposed by the Japanese government on Foreign direct investment.
Despite of the many differences between the Chinese and the Japanese market, a similar joint venture agreement is highly recommended in China. The essence of a joint venture is the synergy effect of two different entities merging. Such an international business strategy will attempt to; solve many logistic problems
As we are all aware of, KCF is a fast food restaurant that specialises in fried chicken and its headquarters is located in Louisville in USA. It is considered the world’s second largest restaurant chain after McDonalds with 18,875 outlets in more than 110 countries and territories as of December 2013, but it is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant. KCF was founded by Harland sanders in the year of 1930. Its first franchise company was opened in Utah in 1952. After the first franchise was opened, KFC started expanding rapidly world-wide, this created a brand image for the company, and their logo became popular and was easily recognised by its external stakeholders. Its strap-line (finger lickin good) defines the deliciousness of their chicken.
Joint ventures (JV) are a popular method of foreign market entry because they theoretically provide a way to join complementary skills and know-how, as well as a way for the foreign firm to gain an insider’s perspective on the foreign market. Since China began its market opening in 1978, joint ventures have been the most commonly used form of foreign direct investment (FDI), with about 70% of FDI in China in the 1980s and 1990s taking the form of joint ventures (Qui, 2005, p. 47). The Chinese company, as well as the foreign investor, has since 1978 been drawn to the joint venture form. Walsh, Wang & Xin (1999) note that from the Chinese
The first KFC was opened in Tiananmen Square, China 1987; it struggled as western food was unknown to the east. This was still a very conservative nation, not prepared for the “Fast Food” takeover. The restaurant did pretty well, but grew slowly. The Harvard business review, stated that “in 1992 the Chinese government granted foreign companies greater access to markets, KFC China’s managers gradually developed the blueprint that would transform the chain.” (Yums' China, 2017) Although they have done well for themselves they struggled, as growth was steady but slow and their customer base was shrinking. “In November 2016 Yum China Holdings, Inc. became a licensee of Yum brands in Mainland China; they have exclusive rights to KFC.” (Yums' China, 2017) Yum controls approximately 7,300 restaurants and more than 400,000 employees in more than 1, 100 cities. YUMS generated over $8bln in sales in 2015.
KFCOne of the major competitors for McDonald in the burger segment is KFC. It first came to India in 1995, where it was one of the first multinational food chains to have entered India. It proved not to be a very good time to have come to India where people were still not able to come to terms with multinationals coming to India, and it was targeted by many and remained a not so known food outlet, while the ones which came later became more popular. KFC India had to shut shop in the late 1990s after it faced heavy protests not only from anti-multinational groups but also animal rights' protector, PETA.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is a very famous chain of quick-service chicken restaurant that started from Louisville, Kentucky. The company is became a sub-brand of Yum Brands in the year 2002 and benefitted greatly from the position and brand value of Yum foods. In the past, KFC chain of restaurants grew at a very fast pace and has become today one of the largest chicken restaurants chain in the world.
Co-investment and joint venture manufacturing arrangements can help lower capital costs and leverage existing local capability, however, this approach also needs to consider the risk of IP loss and lower management control. In contrast, leveraging LE existing Indonesia & China manufacturing capability via an import model would lower upfront
Firstly, it is important to remember the current situation of Trader Joe’s in USA, the company has over 400 stores in 30 states and is the leader in customer service in USA. However, the company is not on the top ten supermarkets in sales category. Additionally, Trader Joe’s just operates in USA and does not have experience in other international markets. (Peterson, 2013)
The procedure begins with an online screening test to ensure that the candidate is fit for the business, and the actual work preview allows the candidate to personally experience the job and then decides to join KFC.
KFC Does two types of planning, Strategic Planning and Operational Planning. Strategic Planning is done to increase its market worth value of the market share and Operational Planning includes launching of new product to change or innovate its product line for the customers. Planning objectives of KFC are to expand the organization on all over the UAE, to create and build superior quality for the customers, to follow marketing mix strategies and to generate superior financial return for KFC and KFC’s employees. Menu planning is done by researching. Supply chain management planning includes the full process related to the supply of raw materials which include chicken, spices and packing material and to increase operation, the objectives of supply chain management planning is to increase the level of outsourcing, increase globalization, increase the supply, increase the competitive pressure and increase the customers.The KFC mission statement is to “sell food in a fast, friendly environment that appeals to pride conscious, health minded consumers”.
However, there are several drawback of joint venture which is potential risk. Danone, as a global multinational cooperation, may concerned about the risk of technology transfer and intellectual property management to the local Chinese ambitious company. The merging different management style due to the culture diversity and the priority to the outcome. Indeed, the conflict with each partner of their interest ratio.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a popular fast food chicken restaurant chain around the world. (Bell, Shelman, 2011) It is one of the subsidiary of Yum Brand. This company also operates the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. (Yum! Brands, Inc, 2016) KFC was founded by Harland Sanders in 1952. (Bell, Shelman, 2011) Sanders was successful in creating the brand, even the logo of KFC brand is the portrait of him. He became a notable figure in American history thanks to his great contribution on creating KFC brand. Nowadays, KFC becomes more and more popular, the sales ranking of KFC was the 11th among the worldwide restaurant brands. (The QSR 50, 2015) The sales of KFC in 2014 was 4200 million dollars. (Details in Appendix 1) It means KFC has a large quantities of consumption needs. Actually, KFC has 14,577 restaurants around the world and 70% of them are located outside America (Yum Brand Annual Report, 2015). The restaurant profit was increased year by year from 2013 to 2015. (Details in Appendix 2) Therefore, it is potential to enlarge the customer base by analyzing consumer behaviors.
It is because through the joint venture, the company is more familiar with the situation of the company there. The negative outcome is that the management system different between the company. So it is hard to make a decision making. It is because there is different opinion of each person.
Burger King has been widely known as one of the biggest fast food restaurant around the world. For decades, Burger King has grown rapidly and well known in the worldwide. Founded by James Mclamore and David Edgerton in Miami, Florida in 1954, the company first started its menu dominantly of burger, fries, and soft drink. Since the restaurant grows, Burger King expanded the breadth of its menu by adding various non-beef items like chicken, fish and veggies sandwiches, a breakfast menu, salads and non-soft drink beverages.
Providing customers with the best of both worlds: west meets east. In addition to its radical strategic approach of localization with regard to its food, they extended that viewpoint when selecting their management team. By hiring Chinese executives, Yum! Brands is able to build relationships with the local suppliers more easily and quickly. It definitely helps with their competitive advantage that chicken is a staple meat in China. Given these factors, it is clear that KFC has a competitive advantage in this market. However, taking a closer look at the industry and thinking longer-term, the competitiveness is undesirable but there is still potential to improve profitability. See the analysis
Evaluate pros and cons of each alternative and suggest a course of action to your CEO.