Kentucky Fried Chicken to expand footprint in Kenya

In turn, developers are putting up shopping centres to meet demand for space by retailers, restaurants and banks with Galleria — at the intersection of Magadi and Lang’ata Road — opening in December 2010.

Phase two of Junction Mall is expected to open doors in April with Greenspan, in Eastlands, opening up mid year.

KFC plans to open its stand-alone restaurants, outside of the food court concept, in the second phase of Junction and Galleria malls with the first one expected to start operating on June 1.

In addition, Kuku Foods is scouting for locations in Nairobi to open up other restaurants, and eventually introduce the “drive thru” concept.

“Kenya is ready for a drive thru. It could work here and it is something we want to introduce down the line,” said Mr Schafer.

Raise the bar

Entry of the brand is expected to raise the bar in the fast food business and give players such as Galito’s, Chicken Inn, and Kenchic a run for their money.

Founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, who has remained a key feature in the company’s advertising, KFC is a fast food restaurant that mainly sells chicken and is looking to roll out a massive Africa-wide expansion, using South Africa as a base.

KFC is part of Yum! and also owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silver brands globally.

Yum! has its eye on expanding KFC footprint on the continent though the franchise model.

There are about 650 KFC outlets on the continent, majority of which are in South Africa where the first restaurant was opened in 1971.

Speaking last month at a US investor conference, the general manager Africa at Yum!, Keith Warren, said the firm was eyeing to expand in East Africa, Angola, Zambia, Ghana, and Nigeria this year.

“Africa is now beginning to boom,” he said. In Nigeria, the company is planning to open 20 KFC outlets. Yum! forecasts that it will have 300 KFC restaurants in Nigeria by 2020, with over 100 units expected to open in East Africa in the same period. The first Nigerian KFC restaurant opened in December 2009.

Africa’s fast economic growth has led to the region increasingly being viewed as the new consumer market frontier, with international retailers moving in to tap into emerging opportunities.

Wall-mart is expected to enter the region.