KFC: 750 UK stores close amid chicken shortage

Most UK branches of fast-food chain KFC have been forced to shut their doors after running out of chicken.

Supplies started to dwindle from last Tuesday, when KFC switched its provider, the BBC reports. As scheduled deliveries failed to materialise, around three-quarters of KFC stores found themselves without their most famous product - and were left with no option but to close their doors.

The crisis intensified over the weekend, and at the peak of the shortage on Monday morning, only 70 of the chain’s 900 UK and Ireland stores were open for business, Sky News reports.

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As of Monday afternoon, around 600 stores were still closed, and KFC has said that it is “too early to say how long it will take to clear the backlog”.

Yorkshire was hit particularly hard by the calamity, with nine out of ten stores in the region closed.

In a Twitter post, KFC admitted that new delivery service DHL had run into “teething problems” after taking over the contract last week.

“We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days, and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix,” it said. “We’re really sorry about that.”

The US-based fast food chain has set up a website to let chicken-hungry customers know which branches are open. As for the rest: “the Colonel is working on it”.

DHL blamed the delays on “operational issues” and said that re-establishing the chicken supply chain was a “priority”.

It was cold comfort for those deprived of their KFC fix, for whom the disaster was a reminder that life is precarious and happiness fleeting: