Posted on 02/26/2013 11:12:02 AM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
BEIJING—The head of Yum Brands Inc.'s China operations made a rare appearance to take aim at the country's food-safety issues and win back customers after allegations of quality oversights at the company's KFC restaurants caused consumer confidence and sales to tumble in its largest market.
Yum is aiming to prevent food-safety problems by cutting its ties with suppliers that source their chicken from small farms that are hard to regulate, said Sam Su, the chairman and chief executive of Yum's China division, in a press briefing Monday. But the fundamental problems that sparked consumer concern over the quality of the company's chicken reside in China's meat industry, which relies on small-scale farms and is vulnerable to risk, Mr. Su said.
"We have been in China for many years now, so we can't say that we haven't known this," said Mr. Su. "But this situation is very complicated and it cannot be fixed with an apology."
The public appearance is rare for Mr. Su, who typically keeps a low profile in his position at Yum. But the Louisville, Ky., company is trying to win back customers to its KFC outlets in China after a probe of its chicken supply late last year resulted in a spate of negative publicity that caused sales to tumble. Mr. Su apologized in January for communications missteps in handling public reaction to the probe.
Mr. Su said in an interview that Yum is working with international poultry suppliers to help them enter the Chinese market or to invest in China's domestic suppliers to improve their quality. Yum will have future announcements on bringing additional poultry players to the market, Mr. Su said, declining to comment further.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I hope they are successful in repairing their image, Yum was a huge American success story in China. I know a kid who works for them, they’ve built 4000 outlets for KFC alone.
Yum Yum Chinese Raised Lead Fed Chicken Mmm secret recipe. I will never eat KFC again. I won’t even feed Chinese dog treats to my dog. I’ll bet Colonel Sanders is spinning in his grave right now.
“Kentucky Fried Chicken...now with more melamine!”
Since it is Johnny Cash’s birthday today, this story will force me to listen to A Boy Named Sue for the remainder of the afternoon in my head. It could be worse, I guess.........
“Do you want your sawdust regular or crispy?”
When it comes to fried Chicken, I like “Pizza Ranch” best(Christian Owned and operated too): http://www.pizzaranch.com/
How about Yum Brands stop bringing in Communist Chinese food products into its American restaurants?
A lot of the stuff we eat today is from Communist China. Beck....Yum Brands will probably bring the Crap food from Commie China and ship it over here
Yum China let the Their local and Taiwan managers run the show - which is great for adapting quickly to the local market, and also keeping costs low.
But such “flexibility” means they also might accept suppliers who would never pass muster in North America.
I have family that lives in litle ‘ol Hull, Iowa. Right where it started.
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