The owner of the KFC franchise sold the Russian business. The network will be renamed Rosticʼs

American holding Yum! On October 24, Brands sold its KFC restaurants to an Izhevsk franchisee, Smart Service LTD LLC. Kommersant writes about this, citing its own sources.

According to the publication, now the network will be called Rosticʼs. Signage will begin to change from next year. This brand was registered by the Russian structure of the American holding in early autumn.

The amount of the transaction is unknown, but analysts have estimated it at 1.3 billion rubles. This is almost one and a half times less than if the buyer had a master franchise at KFC.

Market analysts note that landlords may increase rental rates for new partners. In addition, they note that product quality may decline if left outside the control of Yum! Brands.

Now in Russia there are about a thousand KFC restaurants. Unlike McDonald's, KFC has many smaller partners. Thus, Smart Service LTD managed only 41 establishments under a franchise. The general director of the Infoline-Analytics agency, Mikhail Burmistrov, suggested that regional restaurants would try to work under the KFC banner as long as possible, and after that they might even try to change their name to a consonant one.

Yum!Brands suspended the operation of its own KFC restaurants in March 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company previously reported that it had found a buyer for its business in Russia, but did not disclose details.

Source: Kommersant

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