In its home market, the U.S., KFC is struggling, an also-ran to McDonald’s, the world’s biggest restaurant company, and feuding with some of its own franchisees over how to halt declining profits.
In China, KFC has achieved such dominance over McDonald’s and local rivals that Col. Harland Sanders’s image is a far more common sight in many Chinese cities than that of Mao. That accomplishment is striking in a country where foreign companies often stumbled and ran into roadblocks in the past.
The secret to the success of KFC’s parent company, Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc., can be traced to its use of local ingredients — both in its management team and on its menus. In the 24 years it has been operating in China, Yum has hired Chinese managers to build partnerships with local companies in its expansion drive and used their expertise to offer an array of regional dishes that appeal to domestic tastes.