Showing posts with label Yum! Brands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yum! Brands. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2015

Yum tests upscale restaurant in Shanghai - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender
Ben Cavender
You might know Yum mostly from KFC and Pizzahut, but in China it has started to test the upscale market. Retail analyst Ben Cavender looks at a test-kitchen at Shanghai´s Bund. From Reuters.

Reuters:
Overlooking Shanghai's iconic riverside Bund and rubbing shoulders with the city's most expensive venues, the restaurant is what Yum calls a "lab" where it studies Chinese diners as it looks to bounce back from a lengthy slump in its top market. 
"A high-end test kitchen will let Yum test the waters with new menus and concepts and get feedback from more sophisticated diners - helpful if you want to go a bit upmarket," said Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research Group. 
Yum's same-store sales at its nearly 7,000 restaurants in China, the firm's biggest market for revenue and profit, fell 16 percent in the last quarter of 2014, dragged down by back-to-back food scares, rising local competition and a sense its main KFC brand may have fallen out of touch with China's consumers.
More at Reuters.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The KFC, McDonald's shoot-out - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender
Ben Cavender
Both KFC and McDonald's have been struggling to keep market share in China by expanding fast. Localizing has become a key word,  but sometimes at the expense of quality, says business analyst Ben Cavender in AdAge.

AdAge:
The U.S. giants have also faced headwinds from questions over their chicken supply, avian flu fears and a slowdown in economic growth. McDonald's China comparable store sales were down 3.6 % in 2013 from 2012. KFC is also revamping its China offering, with an updated menu and much-needed store renovations.
"One of the problems KFC had is they've expanded so quickly they haven't done a good job of cleaning up and modernizing stores, whereas McDonald's has been very aggressive about doing that," said Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research Group. "We're starting to see a shift where consumers are saying they actually like the McDonald's dining experience, more than at KFC."
McDonald's is also getting more aggressive about store openings: Last year it debuted 275 China locations and this year it plans 300.
More in AdAge.

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