Chicken shortage continues at KFC

KFC is still grappling with the closure of 600 stores after a new delivery contract with DHL sparked chicken shortages across the country.

The company released an updated list of 296 outlets that were still open yesterday — although KFC said earlier in the day that many were offering limited menus or had cut their hours.

It means that about two-thirds of its near-900 stores were suffering from a chicken shortage.

But today, the fast food giant’s three branches in Dundee — at High Street, Tom Johnson Road in Claypotts and Camperdown Leisure Park — remained open.

Forfar’s branch at Orchard Business Park and Arbroath’s branch at Westway Retail Park were also open today, according to the firm’s website.

KFC gave no indication about when operations would be back to normal but encouraged diners to check its website in order to find the nearest open restaurant.

KFC UK & Ireland said in its latest tweet: “We’re updating this as regularly as we can and our teams are working around the cluck to get the rest back up and running as soon as possible.”

The closures were the result of delayed chicken deliveries by DHL, which announced in November that it had been appointed alongside QSL to manage the supply and distribution of food products and packaging for more than 850 KFC restaurants throughout the UK.

DHL said in a statement: “Due to operational issues, a number of deliveries in recent days have been incomplete or delayed. We are working with KFC and our partners to rectify the situation as a priority and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

KFC detailed the problems in an earlier statement, which said: “We’ve brought a new delivery partner on board but they’ve had a couple of teething problems — getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex.

“We won’t compromise on quality, so no deliveries has meant some of our restaurants are closed and others are operating a limited menu or shortened hours.

“We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix — we’re really sorry about that.”

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KFC in High Street