YumChina (NYSE:YUMC)

[Snoopy]

When I first heard about the KFC drive into China, I thought of a vast receptive open audience just ripe for the picking. It would simply be a mechanical process to roll the US model for KFC success onto a blank Chinese canvas.

However, here is a detailed history of what has happened with the roll out over the last 30 years:

https://macropolo.org/how-kfc-change...a-changed-kfc/

This article clearly shows that even with a prescriptive management plan tightly overseeing the business development, there have been many hiccups along the way. 'First mover advantage' saw KFC off to a flying start. But the novelty lustre was lost by the early 2000s. So KFC changed focus by becoming more attuned to Chinese customs. Breakfast is very important in China. So KFC began introducing a wide variety of breakfast products tailored specifically to Chinese customers: soymilk drinks, savoury fried dough (youtiao), and congee. Later the company also introduced rice-based meals to its lunch and dinner menus.

Greater competition from 2010 to 2014 has seen KFC target 'small' fourth tier cities (still with populations greater than 2.5m) and gear their offerings to the upcoming 'digital generation'.

What went wrong in the early part of our five year analysis? Specifically failure of certain upstream poultry suppliers to meet YumChina standards in late 2012 as well as adverse publicity relating to improper food handling practices by a separate, small upstream supplier in mid-2014 badly affected the same store growth picture. The poultry supply issue from 2012 emerged when the Chinese Central Television (CCTV) broadcast an investigative report about some poultry farmers ignoring regulations by using excessive levels of antibiotics in chicken. Some of the product was purchased by two of KFC China's suppliers. The story led to an investigation by the Shanghai FDA and snowballed into a negative media and social media firestorm lasting six weeks. To underscore its effect, same-store sales declined 41 percent at KFC in January 2013. Returning to 2014 , specifically, on July 20, an undercover report was televised in China depicting improper food handling practices by supplier Shanghai Husi,a division of OSI, which is a large, global supplier to many in the restaurant industry. This triggered extensive news coverage in China that shook consumer confidence and impacted brand usage. Immediately following the incident, YUM experienced a significant, negative impact to sales and profits at both KFC and Pizza Hut Casual Dining.

There are clearly issues with operating a food business in China that mean that investment success is not a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless YumChina fought off a private equity takeover valuing the company at $18billion (around $40 per share) in 2017. So clearly there are enough shareholders out there who believe YumChina is doing something right, even if Buffett would not be investing at this point.

SNOOPY