Unions ‘warned of delivery problems’
UNION bosses say they warned KFC ditching its contract with its Roytonbased supplier would lead to delivery problems.
The fast food chain is grappling with a chicken supply crisis that has forced most of its restaurants, including several across Greater Manchester, to close.
An updated list showed just 241 of the UK’s 870 branches were open on Tuesday.
The GMB union said it had expressed major doubts about KFC’s decision last October to switch its deliveries from Royton-based food delivery specialists Bidvest Logistics to DHL – and warned it could face a repeat of supply problems that hit Burger King when it made the same move six years ago.
Mark Rix, GMB’s national officer, told the Guardian: “We warned them a few months ago. I wrote to KFC.
“I alluded to Burger King.
“They had shortages too, but not on the scale we’re seeing now at KFC. Within six months they [Burger King] were pleading with Bidvest Logistics to take it back.”
Rix said the KFC crisis stemmed from dropping a supply system based on six warehouses run by BL to just one distribution centre in Rugby, run by DHL.
More than 260 jobs were axed at Bidvest, whose headquarters are at Salmon Fields in Royton, when the firm lost the KFC contract.
KFC has yet to respond to the GMB’s claims, but a spokesman said the firm ‘anticipated the number of closures will reduce today and over the coming days as our teams work flat out all hours to clear the backlog’.
In a statement DHL said: “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.”