The curtains have come down, albeit temporarily, on almost 500 KFC joints in the UK after they ran out of chicken. Workers are being encouraged, but not forced, to take paid leave until the situation is resolved.
"The chicken crossed the road, just not to our restaurants," KFC said on Twitter."We've brought a new delivery partner onboard, but they've had a couple of teething problems - getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex!"
KFC had recently changed its delivery contract to DHL, swapping from Bidvest, and the change has wreaked havoc all across the United Kingdom. KFC was apparently warned against the shift, which resulted in 255 job losses and the closure of one distribution centre.
"Bidvest are specialists - a food distribution firm with years of experience,” said Mick Rix, national officer of the GMB union. “DHL are scratching around for any work they can get, and undercut them. KFC are left with hundreds of restaurants closed while DHL try and run the whole operation out of one distribution centre. Three weeks ago KFC knew they had made a terrible mistake, but by then it was too late.”
