KFC’s latest restaurants opened in Bucharest and Ploiesti (about 60 kilometers north of Bucharest). The company opened a restaurant in the shopping center Carrefour’s real estate division and NEPI inaugurated in Ploiesti on Thursday. It also opened its first drive-thru in Bucharest in the parking lot of a Kaufland hypermarket.
The new restaurant is very close to the best restaurant in the McDonald’s chain, near the Dristor subway station (SE Bucharest), which generates more than EUR5 million in revenue a year. McDonald’s drive-thru restaurant close to the station is open 24/7, hence its high revenue.
This is precisely the reason why KFC decided to open its own drive-thru there.
KFC has three more drive-thrus in Romania in Sibiu, Arad and Iasi (central, NW, and NE Romania), the latter two of which opened in 2012. Its latest such restaurant in Bucharest required about EUR700,000 investments and is expected to generate about EUR1.2 million in its first year in business.
The strategy of the chain changed this year, once Briton Mark Hilton was put in charge. He said when he started his new job that his list of priorities included aggressive expansion, because the market still has growth potential.
KFC arrived in Romaia in 1997 and invested almost EUR20 million in the 46 restaurants it has in this country. Most of its restaurants are located in Bucharest.
US Food Network, the operator of the KFC franchise in Romania, posted about EUR38 million revenue in 2011, up 1% on 2010. KFC’s boss said several months ago that sales should go up 5% in 2012, which would translate into revenue close to EUR40 million.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)