FCK: The Day KFC Ran Out of Chicken. A Masterclass in Supply Chain Risk.
Published on September 22, 2025 by MoreMeets Team
In February 2018, Kentucky Fried Chicken, a brand synonymous with chicken, committed the ultimate sin: it ran out of chicken. Hundreds of its 900 outlets across the UK were forced to close, signs on the doors wryly apologizing for the fowl-up. The financial cost was enormous, but the reputational damage was even worse. The culprit wasn't a chicken shortage; it was a self-inflicted logistics catastrophe.
KFC had just switched its delivery contract from a food logistics specialist, Bidvest, to DHL, reportedly to save money. The new single DHL warehouse couldn't cope, leading to a complete breakdown in the supply chain. This incident is a powerful masterclass for any business that relies on a physical supply chain: operational resilience is not a cost center, it's your lifeline. The failures also offer a powerful lesson for businesses facing disruption from events like the Red Sea shipping crisis.
Failure Point 1: The Single Point of Failure
KFC's crisis stemmed from a classic strategic error: in a bid to cut costs, they consolidated their entire national distribution network to a single warehouse run by a new, untested partner (DHL). This created a massive single point of failure.
Our Vendor Onboarding & Risk Assessment checklist would mandate a formal risk assessment before any major vendor change. It would immediately flag the "single warehouse" strategy as a critical, high-impact risk and force management to create a contingency plan. The SOP would also require a phased rollout, running the new vendor in parallel with the old one for a period to ensure stability before a full switch.
Failure Point 2: The Lack of a Backup Plan
When the single DHL warehouse inevitably failed to cope, KFC had no immediate alternative. They had severed ties with their previous supplier and had not pre-vetted any other backup providers. They were operationally stranded.
This SOP requires businesses to pre-identify, vet, and maintain relationships with backup suppliers and logistics partners *before* a crisis hits. A "cold standby" or "warm standby" agreement would have been in place, ready to be activated the moment DHL's failure became apparent.
Conclusion: Don't Put All Your Chicken in One Basket
The KFC debacle is a lesson every business leader should study. In an effort to optimize costs, they sacrificed resilience, and the result was a multi-million-dollar disaster. A resilient supply chain isn't about having the cheapest option; it's about having documented, tested, and reliable options. By implementing the principles in our Logistics & Warehouse Pack, you can build a supply chain that is not just lean, but also strong and flexible enough to withstand the inevitable shocks of the modern world.
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