Bloomberg News carried a report on 5 march 2019 of a KFC owner in China who is continuing his expansion plans, opening two stores a day in China, the world’s biggest consumer market while looking at technology to keep costs low.
While the trade war with the US and the slowest economic growth since 1990 has many worried, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut in China remains upbeat about business prospects. It is using new technologies and spending and demographics information from more than 160 million members in its KFC digital loyalty program and 50 million in Pizza Hut members. That hass allowed the chain to better forecast demand, cut food waste and boost profit margins. The savings have helped the chain avoid raising prices. KFCs in China take payment by facial recognition, ice cream is served by robotic arms and customers can control the background music through their mobile phones like a new-age jukebox. The use of technology to target tech-savvy customers, mainly in top tier cities, is one strategy to lure business in the more mature market.
Read more here: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/kfc-owner-defies-china-slowdown-with-a-i-menus-and-robot-servers