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Popular fast food franchise KFC has announced plans to create 7,000 jobs across the UK and Ireland. It comes as emerging competitors pose a threat to the chain’s dominance.
Chicken shop franchise KFC is planning to expand significantly across the UK and Ireland in the next five years, the company has announced.
It says it will create 7,000 new jobs and invest £1.5 billion. KFC will be building new restaurants in ‘key locations’ that include Ireland and northern England.
As the BBC reports, the fried chicken business is huge in the UK, with consumers spending billions each year. According to Kantar data, the British public spent £2.8 billion on fried chicken from April 2023 to early 2024.
£500 million will be poured into 500 new franchise buildings. KFC will also be upgrading its existing restaurants, most of which operate as independent franchises. That’s a sizeable investment considering KFC has over 1,000 sites in the UK.
New jobs will include servers, kitchen-based roles and managers.
KFC is the largest fried chicken chain in Britain by quite some margin. It has been a staple of drunken nights out, lazy evening meals or a quick chicken fix for decades, though its lead is under threat with the emergence of more competitor chains.
These include brands like Wingstop and Popeyes, both of which have begun expansion across the UK in the past few years. While they’ve nowhere near the same amount of brick-and-mortar restaurants in Britain as KFC, both are planning to open new stores in the coming years.
Wingstop has roughly 57 sites currently, with another 20 planned to open in the future. Popeyes UK has 65 eateries and opened 33 more last year.
The rise of Uber Eats and similar delivery apps over the last decade has also opened up the competition and provided greater room for diversity, thanks to the added convenience and easier access to other options. Overall, the UK food deliver market reached an estimated £3.8 billion in value in 2024 alone.
