Union says KFC’s chickens have ‘come home to roost’ as majority of UK sites close due to delivery woes

by XPRESS, 20 February 2018

The GMB said the crisis was down to KFC’s decision to award its delivery contract to DHL to “save money”, despite the union’s warnings.

Until last week, KFC delivered poultry to UK outlets via food distribution firm Bidvest Logistics.

However, KFC awarded the contract to DHL leading, the GMB said, to 255 redundancies and the closure of a Bidvest depot.

Bidvest operates a network of distribution centres across the UK but, the union said, DHL was trying to do the job with only one.

GMB national officer Mick Rix said: “We tried to warn KFC this decision would have consequences – well now the chickens are coming home to roost. Bidvest is a specialist – a food distribution firm with years of experience. KFC are left with hundreds of restaurants closed while DHL tries to run the whole operation out of one distribution centre. KFC’s bird-brained decision has caused untold misery to customers, to Bidvest workers and restaurant staff who are not being paid.”

KFC said the closures were down to “teething problems” relating to the new contract.

Signs on many of the closed stores read: “Sorry, we’re closed. We deliver our chickens fresh into our restaurants but we’ve had a few hiccups with the delivery today.”

On a day when chicken-related puns flew around the internet, KFC tweeted “some chickens have now crossed the road, the rest are at the pelican crossing”, with the company setting up a website so customers can find their nearest open restaurant.

The tweet continued: “We are working round the cluck to get the rest back up and running as soon as possible.”

DHL said “operational issues” meant several KFC deliveries over recent days had been incomplete or delayed.

Not so finger licking good!

Article Credit: Propel info