February 4, 2004

KFC Thailand Gives Away Chickens To Restore Confidence

The Kentucky Fried Chicken chain in Thailand will give away 50,000 pieces of chicken, worth 1.5 million baht, in a bid to restore consumer's confidence in chicken over the next few days.

Yum Restaurants International (Thailand) Co yesterday denied the campaign was meant to arrest the fall in sales at its 305 KFC outlets nationwide as most people had shied away from consuming poultry due to the avian flu scare.

"Our sales are still intact," said managing director Panithan Sethabutra. "But we are doing this (campaign) to save the country's chicken businesses as a whole."

He said Yum was collaborating with the government in a bid to communicate to Thai consumers that it was safe to eat properly cooked chicken meat.

Yesterday, KFC along with other caterers of chicken started to distribute free chicken dishes to the public at the headquarters of Channel 11 TV. The distribution will continue until Friday, with Yum preparing to give away at least 1,000 pieces of chicken per day.

On Saturday, Yum plans to distribute more than 30,000 pieces of chicken at a government-sponsored event in the Sanam Luang area, Mr Panithan said.

On the same day, similar confidence-boosting events would be held in 10 other provinces, where KFC will have booths and give away 1,000 pieces of fried chicken at all 10 city halls.

Mr Panithan said Yum Restaurants did not have any plan to adjust the operations of KFC, the country's largest fast-food restaurant chain and a major seller of chicken.

"We believe that everything will get back to normal as soon as people begin eating chicken again," he said.

Yesterday Yum also launched a new marketing campaign for its Pizza Hut restaurants, "Passing The Love Forward", tied to Valentine's Day and aimed at increasing sales at the outlets by 20%.

Diners ordering a heart-shaped pizza worth 350 baht will receive a free CD of an exclusive love song written by Boyd Kosiyabong and sung by Nop Pornchamni.