Yum Eyes Ethiopian Entry as KFC Restaurants Expand Across Africa

Yum! Brands Inc., the owner of the KFC fast-food chain, said it’s looking at entering Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, as it expands across the continent.

“Ethiopia is the one that stands out because it has 85 to 90 million people, so that’s attractive,” Bruce Layzell, Yum’s general manager of new African markets, said in a phone interview today from Johannesburg. “We’re certainly nowhere near pushing the go button, it’s still at that explore stage, to find the right partner, to see if the business model will work.”