KFC is temporarily halting TV advertisements promoting the quick service restaurant chain’s boneless products due to a U.S. chicken shortage.
“On chicken tenders, we have enough to supply demand, but we would love to have more to be able to aggressively promote it on TV,” KFC U.S. President Kevin Hochman said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“In terms of advertising and promotion we’re going to focus on things we have abundant quantities of,” he said, noting that bone-in chicken is more plentiful now.
In February 2021, the brand launched an upgraded chicken sandwich. The new KFC Chicken Sandwich contains a quarter pound of white meat fillet that is double-breaded, fried and served on a buttered brioche bun with thicker crinkle-cut pickles, topped with a choice of the Colonel’s real mayo or spicy sauce. The fillet is 25% larger than the one previously used in KFC chicken sandwiches.
What’s causing the shortage?
The nationwide chicken shortage has been attributed to everything from surges in consumer demand to labor shortages in poultry processing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fried chicken sandwiches have remained highly popular with consumers following the 2019 chicken sandwich wars. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Chick-fil-A remain the industry leaders, with an average of 3.8 new chicken sandwiches introduced to the market each week between January and June 2021.
On an April 28 conference call, Yum (the parent company of KFC) Chief Executive Officer David Gibbs hinted at the shortage, stating that “demand for the new sandwich has been so strong that, coupled with general tightening in domestic chicken supply, our main challenge has been keeping up with that demand.”
Some quick service restaurant chains are looking to alternative chicken cuts and types during the shortage. In June 2021, Wingstop introduced Thighstop, a virtual brand focused on chicken thighs, in response to rising prices and shortages of wings throughout the U.S. Trials of bone-in thighs began last fall after the fast casual brand realized that purchasing whole chickens could help save money.
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