KFC touts boneless chicken and new drinks as chain attempts to regain share

To appeal to today’s diners, KFC is prioritizing boneless chicken dishes, expanding its sauce options and designing its restaurants to hold customers’ attention.

These days, the Yum Brands the unit faces stiff competition, both from newer chicken chains and legacy giants like McDonald’s who are betting big on the growing global popularity of chicken. Although KFC claims to have invented the chicken quick-service restaurant category, being first is not the same as being number one, particularly in the United States, where its sales have fallen in recent years.

“In an increasingly crowded category, we have a clear opportunity to set the standard for modern chicken in the QSR industry,” KFC Global CEO Scott Mezvinsky said Monday in a statement announcing the chain’s “next chapter.”

A central point of the strategy is what KFC calls a “bold menu overhaul.”

As part of this, the chain plans to expand its boneless chicken options and improve its recipe for its existing offerings.

“We’re moving from bone-in chicken to boneless chicken more and more,” Christophe Poirier, KFC’s chief concept officer, told CNBC.

“We are evolving our offerings to ensure that, which is non-negotiable, we will have the biggest, juiciest and crispiest,” he added.

KFC is also expanding its range of available sauces to appeal to consumers who like to dip, dip or baste their chicken fillets. The chain’s “global sauce pantry” has more than 20 varieties that often mix classic sauces with new flavors, like its chimichurri ranch. (The KFC spinoff restaurant chain Saucy, focused on tenders and sauces, has grown to nearly a dozen locations, all in Florida.)

This month, restaurants across the UK and Ireland will begin rolling out the new tenders along with nine new sauces. Australia and the United States will follow later this summer, with other global markets expected throughout the rest of the year.

KFC is also launching a menu line called “Dunked,” which includes tenders, wings and sandwiches dipped in sauce. The menu items are already available in South Africa and India.

Like many fast food restaurants, KFC is also expanding its range of drink options to include boba refreshments, sparkling lemonades and iced coffees under a new sub-brand called Kwench by KFC. Some Irish and British restaurants already sell Kwench drinks, but Australia and Canada will add them to their permanent menus this year.

“We can quickly implement many of the initiatives that we run from the center,” Poirier said, crediting the chain’s supply chain agility.

The chain’s restaurants will also look different as it rolls out new store designs. This summer, an “open concept” restaurant will open in McKinney, Texas; a two-story “immersive” venue in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will follow in September.

Poirier compared the experience of visiting his upcoming “immersive” restaurant to attending a concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas. KFC designed the store to distract customers from their phones and keep them engaged in the in-person experience.

A new brand image is also part of the strategy. The chain’s new logo features its mascot, Colonel Sanders, surrounded on either side by the inscription “KFC”, resembling the shape of its famous chicken buckets. KFC said the bucket would be “refreshed,” while Sanders would receive a “subtle evolution,” according to the network.

With more than 34,000 locations worldwide, KFC is one of the world’s largest restaurant chains. It’s also an important part of Yum’s portfolio, especially as its parent company seeks to sell its struggling sister chain Pizza Hut.

But KFC has its own challenges.

In the United States, the chain has been ceding market share to newcomers like Raising Cane’s for years. In 2021, KFC had a 16% market share in the United States for chicken quick-service restaurants, placing it second behind Chick-fil-A, according to Barclays. By 2024, its market share had fallen to 9.4%, and Popeyes and Raising Cane’s had overtaken KFC, dragging the chain into fourth place.

Outside of the United States, KFC has been more successful. Yum considers KFC International one of its two “growth engines,” along with Taco Bell, the top performer.

In its most recent quarter, KFC reported same-store sales growth of 2%. Yum no longer shares same-store sales of the chain’s domestic operations, implying that this segment is now considered unimportant to the company’s broader bottom line. China and Europe are KFC’s two largest regions in terms of system sales, with the United States taking third place.

To revive its flagging U.S. business, Yum hired Catherine Tan-Gillespie as KFC’s new U.S. president more than a year ago. So far, its turnaround efforts have included offering better meals and bringing back Colonel Sanders.

KFC US has seen same-store sales growth over the past three quarters, Tan-Gillespie told trade publication Restaurant Business earlier this month.