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KFC to open outlet along Mama Ngina Street


Global fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) will open outlets on Nairobi’s Mama Ngina Street, at the upcoming Thika Road’s Garden City Mall and at The Hub, Karen, in the next five months.

The Garden City Mall branch is expected to open next month, while The Hub and Mama Ngina Street outlets are to start operations in September.

The Mama Ngina street outlet, the second in the Central Business Districts (CBD), has taken space in Jubilee House adjacent to the 20th Century Cinema.

Justin Melvin, the KFC Kenya general manager, said the global chain’s local franchise holder Kuku Foods will spend Sh195.3 million ($2.1 million) in setting up the new outlets.

HEAVY INVESTMENT

“It will cost about Sh65.1 million ($700,000) to open each branch but the fee would have been more if we had to build-like we did with the drive-through outlet on Mombasa Road,” said Melvin during an interview.

He said the expansion plans are in line with the company’s growth strategy set for 2015 and that they are driven by growing demand for KFC’s products.

“Our current stores have yielded encouraging results and so this year we are going to accelerate growth and open outlets in various parts of the city. The new outlets will be in convenient locations where people can walk in and place their orders with ease,” he said.

HIGH PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC

The decision to open a branch on Mama Ngina Street, Mr Melvin said, is due to the fact that it is “popular and a busy walking path making it good for business,”

“With this new outlet, our plan is to tap the high traffic pedestrian path and reach out to more people in the CBD.”

The Mama Ngina street outlet will have a sitting capacity of 70 people. Last year Kuku Foods announced that it planned to open an additional 10 KFC outlets in the next two years.

Mr Melvin said the drive-through outlet was popular with their customers. “The drive-through outlet is doing great and is currently accounting for 20 per cent of the total sales,” he said.