KFC is going to nearly double the number of its outlets in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to 450 by 2015, a news report said Wednesday.
The chicken fast food company’s latest outlet opened in Moscow the day before, bringing the region’s total to 250.
In announcing further expansion plans, Oleg Pisklov, chief of Yum! Restaurants International in Russia, which manages KFC eateries, said the chain would not venture outside the CIS members where it is already present, Vedomosti reported. The countries that already have a KFC presence are Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
After the expansion, Russia will continue to account for 80 percent of the total number of outlets, a Yum! spokesperson said.
The latest arrival in the chain, a franchise restaurant at the Paveletsky railway station, might become the chain’s leader in sales globally, as suggested by its operation during several days before the grand opening, said Anastasy Yakhtantsidi, director of the franchising company that owns the outlet.
Andrei Petrakov, executive director of restaurant business consultant RestCon, said the accelerated growth would allow KFC to lay hands on the best of the increasingly scarce supply of suitable property.
It costs $700,000 to open one KFC restaurant, mostly for furnishing, equipment and furniture, which is less than a McDonald’s requires, the news report said.
McDonald’s has 378 outlets in Russia alone. The country’s leading foreign fast food chain is Subway with 582 eateries.
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