Fast food giant KFC was forced to close over 750 of its 900 UK outlets, following ‘operational issues’ after switching its delivery contract to DHL.

Until 13 February, Bidvest Logistics was responsible for distributing KFC’s chicken across its UK network, but the fast food chain switched to DHL in a bid to increase profits, according to GMB. As a result of the switch, there were 255 redundancies and a Bidvest depot was forced to close.

The fried chicken chain has published a list of restaurants on its website that are now open, but expects disruptions to continue for the remainder of the week – with some outlets operating with a reduced menu or shortened hours.

KFC said in a statement: “We anticipate the number of closures will reduce today and over the coming days as our teams work flat out all hours to clear the backlog.

“Each day more deliveries are being made, however, we expect the disruption to some restaurants to continue over the remainder of the week, meaning some will be closed and others operating with a reduced menu or shortened hours.

“We’ve brought a new delivery partner onboard, but they’ve had a couple of teething problems – getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex.”

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