There were literally hundreds of KFC stores that remained shut in the U.K. following the debacle in the new delivery contract that the U.S. fast food chain has entered into. The company is now attempting to open up many of the stores by the weekend and has deputed larger number of truckers for speedy delivery of chicken.
All of the KFC chicken had been stored by DHL – the company that has been appointed as the new delivery partner of KFC, in a single cold storage that is unregistered in Rugby.
Some of the chicken at the warehouse would be required to be destroyed, KFC has said.
It was only after news reports in the media that the Rugby borough council came to know that the warehouse in question stored fresh chicken, said a spokeswoman of the council to the media. The Rugby borough council looks after maintenance of adequate standards of food and environmental health in the area.
The warehouse could have bene closed by the council because its operating companies had not got it registered as a cold storage as is mandatory, the spokeswoman added
“Council inspectors visited the depot on Tuesday because they were not aware it was operating as a cold storage depot,” she said. “We could have served a remedial action notice to stop them operating until the conditional approval had been obtained, but we did not consider that this would have been in the public interest.”
In a statement, the council added: “There is no requirement for the DHL cold-storage facility to be licensed, but it does need to be registered. We have now received the relevant documentation and expect to be able to approve the registration in the next few days.”
While claiming that waste at the depot is being attempted to be minimized, a KKFC spokeswoman said: “nothing will leave for delivery or be served at our restaurants that doesn’t meet our incredibly high standards. At this stage, we don’t know [how much chicken will be destroyed], but we are doing everything we can to avoid wastage.”
The standards of food safety being implemented at the DHL warehouse were found to be satisfactory by food safety inspectors, said Rugby council’s statement. The parameters that the inspectors looked out for included adequate controlling of temperature, date coding, food handling and related record-keeping. “They didn’t observe any out-of-date chicken or other foods.”
At the time when KFC had decided to change its delivery partner in October last year, a warning to the company that there would be supply shortages was issued by the GMB union.
Six years ago, similar supply shortages were faced by Burger King when it changed its delivery partner from Bidvest Logistics to DHL, and this explicit warning was given to KFC, said Mick Rix, the GMB’s national officer.
When the chicken supply shortage was at its height, there were 640 KFC retail outlets that had to be shut down temporarily by the company.
In a statement, KFC said: “Our teams continue to work flat out all hours to clear the backlog caused by the breakdown in the DHL distribution system.
“We still expect the disruption to some restaurants to continue over the remainder of the week which means some will not be open and others will operate with a reduced menu or shortened hours.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com
All of the KFC chicken had been stored by DHL – the company that has been appointed as the new delivery partner of KFC, in a single cold storage that is unregistered in Rugby.
Some of the chicken at the warehouse would be required to be destroyed, KFC has said.
It was only after news reports in the media that the Rugby borough council came to know that the warehouse in question stored fresh chicken, said a spokeswoman of the council to the media. The Rugby borough council looks after maintenance of adequate standards of food and environmental health in the area.
The warehouse could have bene closed by the council because its operating companies had not got it registered as a cold storage as is mandatory, the spokeswoman added
“Council inspectors visited the depot on Tuesday because they were not aware it was operating as a cold storage depot,” she said. “We could have served a remedial action notice to stop them operating until the conditional approval had been obtained, but we did not consider that this would have been in the public interest.”
In a statement, the council added: “There is no requirement for the DHL cold-storage facility to be licensed, but it does need to be registered. We have now received the relevant documentation and expect to be able to approve the registration in the next few days.”
While claiming that waste at the depot is being attempted to be minimized, a KKFC spokeswoman said: “nothing will leave for delivery or be served at our restaurants that doesn’t meet our incredibly high standards. At this stage, we don’t know [how much chicken will be destroyed], but we are doing everything we can to avoid wastage.”
The standards of food safety being implemented at the DHL warehouse were found to be satisfactory by food safety inspectors, said Rugby council’s statement. The parameters that the inspectors looked out for included adequate controlling of temperature, date coding, food handling and related record-keeping. “They didn’t observe any out-of-date chicken or other foods.”
At the time when KFC had decided to change its delivery partner in October last year, a warning to the company that there would be supply shortages was issued by the GMB union.
Six years ago, similar supply shortages were faced by Burger King when it changed its delivery partner from Bidvest Logistics to DHL, and this explicit warning was given to KFC, said Mick Rix, the GMB’s national officer.
When the chicken supply shortage was at its height, there were 640 KFC retail outlets that had to be shut down temporarily by the company.
In a statement, KFC said: “Our teams continue to work flat out all hours to clear the backlog caused by the breakdown in the DHL distribution system.
“We still expect the disruption to some restaurants to continue over the remainder of the week which means some will not be open and others will operate with a reduced menu or shortened hours.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com