Some KFC restaurants in Russia do not want to change their name to Rostic’s, Kommersant writes, citing sources. Hey Kay Russia LLC, franchise manager of around a hundred establishments of the American chain, is not going to change its name in the near future.
The company wants to keep the same name at least until 2035; This year the contract with the American Yum! Brands to use the brand. Plans to retain the family signs were confirmed to the publication by the company’s general director, Alexey Chizhov.
“We are not ready to move to Rostic at this time,” he said.
The rights to develop the KFC brand in the Russian market until October 2022 were in the hands of Unirest, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands. This structure announced its departure from the Russian Federation due to the country’s armed conflict with a neighboring state.
During the same period, the Unirest business was bought by the franchisee of the Izhevsk network, Smart Service Konstantin Kotov and Andrey Oskolkov. Smart Service should lead the rebranding process.
According to the Kartoteka.ru publication, AK Russia increased its revenue last year by 45% to $8.6 billion, in addition, as follows from the database data, 90.01% belongs to the Cypriot Lerondale Assets Ltd, and among The final beneficiary was Alexander Kolobov’s Shokoladnitsa group. According to a Kommersant source, Kolobov closed even before the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this year, several KFC franchisees, including Hey Kay Russia, asked Russian authorities to suspend the sale of the business to Yum! “Intelligent Service” brands. Then there were arguments that once the deal was closed the company would change the name of all the restaurants to Rostic’s, even though only 20% of the population knew the brand. And KFC’s recognition is 99%.
According to Moscow restaurant market advocate Sergei Mironov, AK Russia’s refusal to rename restaurants is now completely justified, since the company initially purchased a franchise of the renowned international restaurant KFC.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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