KFC Brings Buckets of Chicken Into Nations With Food Safety Risks

Yum! Brands will continue its bold push to bring Colonel Sanders into new territories despite a year of problems in China, the company’s single-largest market in terms of revenue. This week executives reaffirmed their commitment to opening more KFC restaurants in both China and India as well as Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Vietnam, Egypt, Thailand, South Africa, and Malaysia.

Growing in emerging markets is not without its problems, and Yum dwells on the risks from such factors as disease outbreaks in its annual report. About 60 percent of the world’s nations—spanning from Mongolia to Argentina—now have a KFC. Over the next seven years, Yum plans to invest $10 billion in emerging markets; in 2014 alone, Yum will open 600 new fried chicken outlets on top of the 18,000 KFCs already spread across 120 countries. (Other fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Subway also intend to grow quickly in these regions.)