KFC comes to town with first US fast food
The doors opened to the first KFC Myanmar outlet in Yangon yesterday – and the chicken is indeed from Myanmar.
The first location for the well-known American fast food restaurant is on Bogyoke Aung San Street opposite Bogyoke Market. It will hold the official launch for the location on July 7, and local franchise holder Yoma Strategic Holdings plans to open several more Yangon outlets before the end of the year.
“Building the supply chain to an international level and standard was our biggest challenge,” said JR Ching, Yoma Strategic’s chief financial officer and managing director of KFC Myanmar. “And it is an international level standard that KFC imposed upon this market. They didn’t give any exemptions or shortcuts because this is Myanmar.”
The firm had an overarching principle to source as much of its product locally as possible. KFC has rigid international quality standards that suppliers must meet, including for its meat.
“A lot of people ask me where the chicken comes from. A lot of people assume it’s imported. It’s not. It’s all local chicken from Myanmar, and it’s delivered fresh to the store daily,” said Mr Ching. He did not discuss the supplier in more detail.
The company is actively adding a few more stores before the end of 2015. It will focus on Yangon for the next 12 months.
“Part of it is operational, part of it is developmental. We see a lot of opportunity still here in Yangon. We think the city offers the best target market for the time being,” said Mr Ching.
“That being said, as we develop, and as we grow, of course we’ll look at other markets.”
Although Mr Ching declined to disclose where additional outlets will be, he said important criteria for selecting sites includes prominent, visible locations, high footfall or car traffic, and an area that caters to its target audience.
While the majority of Yoma Strategic’s revenue comes from property, the firm is working with outside land owners for the KFC business.
Mr Ching said the market is relatively new in terms of quick service restaurants.
“We think KFC is the first global brand to be entering the market though of course there are regional brands like Lotteria and Marrybrown already here,” he said. The firm aims to differentiate itself through several factors, including brand awareness, product quality and the work it is putting into its restaurants.
There is a large degree of brand awareness already particularly among Yangon residents, and people who have been abroad or watch international television.
“That being said, I think we’re trying to cater to all Myanmar people, trying to keep our prices accessible so that everyone in Myanmar can enjoy,” he said.
One advantage to being an international brand is that it can look at other examples abroad to find out what worked and what did not.
KFC Myanmar has gone with baskets for serving in-house meals, rather than the plates used in some other Asian countries.
Mr Ching said the choice of the plate versus the basket came down to more operational considerations rather than experience.
“There is a difference in terms of the way operations run and we’ve learned a lot through our workings with the KFC group from other markets,” he said.
KFC is part of the US-based Yum! chain of restaurants. The firm has 19,400 restaurants in 120 countries, including over 500 KFC outlets in both Thailand and Malaysia, 6500 in China and 240 in India.
Yoma Strategic, meanwhile, is a Singapore-listed, Myanmar-focused company helmed by prominent entrepreneur Serge Pun.
(Quote from Myanmar times online website on 1 July 2015)