KFC and Pizza Hut are returning to Türkiye!

Yum! Brands, one of the world's leading fast food chains, terminated the contract of İş Gıda, which operated its franchise service in Türkiye, with the decision it made in the first days of January.

The reason for the termination decision was given as the company's failure to meet the standards set in Türkiye, and this decision caused İş Gıda to declare bankruptcy, while 537 KFC and Pizza Hut branches in Türkiye also closed their doors.

RETURNING TO THE TURKISH MARKET

According to the news by Necla Dalan from Bosses World; KFC and Pizza Hut, whose branches have been closed for about 4 months, have reached an agreement to return to the Turkish market.

Planning to continue its own operations in Türkiye, American giant Yum! Brands has reached an agreement with Value Solution Partners, which provides real estate and investment management services.

Value Solution Partners has started to meet with shopping mall investors to continue the agreements on the current lease terms. Although agreements have been reached for a few branches, most investors are not in favor of the agreement. Again, it is said behind the scenes that the investors who are not in favor of the agreement want the existing debts to be paid first and the rents to be increased.

TALKS CONTINUE

Before the stores were closed, 90 percent of shopping malls in Türkiye had KFC and Pizza Hut branches. While it was said in the industry circles that İş Gıda had not been able to pay rent for 3-4 months, it was claimed that the closed branches would mean a monthly loss of 80 million TL for shopping mall investors, with an average rent of 150 thousand TL per store.

MCDONALD'S AND TAB FOOD DENIED THE ALLEGATIONS

While McDonald's officials stated that they have no plans to purchase KFC and Pizza Hut, this issue was brought to the agenda of the TAB Food wing at the general assembly meeting held on Friday.

According to the notification regarding the general assembly transactions made to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP), Mustafa Can Kaya asked the general assembly electronically, “Is there any work regarding the creation of market share and similar opportunities for TAB Gıda by the 537 branches that were closed with the termination of the Yum! Brands franchise, KFC, Pizza Hut etc., if there is, could you please provide information?” The answer was, “Regarding the İş Holding question, we would like to state that we do not have a strategy to directly acquire the brands.”

Despite such an answer being given at the general assembly, according to what was reported from the shopping malls' backstages, Popeyes, the fried chicken chain under TAB Gıda, is closely interested in the closed branches of KFC.