Another Fast-Food Giant Has Pulled Out Of Russia
The mass exodus of companies from Russia, which insists on waging war on neighboring Ukraine, continues. The war has raged now for nearly five months, claiming the lives of nearly 5,000 Ukrainian civilians and injuring more than 6,000 more, per United Nations. Many companies have ceased operations in the country after the invasion, including McDonald's big move with its Russian restaurants, Adidas, H&M, Carlsberg, Little Caesars, and the huge change Starbucks announced for its Russian locations (per The New York Times).
To date, more than 1,000 businesses have either stopped operations completely or limited them severely, per the Yale School of Management, which is keeping a comprehensive list of which businesses have responded to the invasion and which haven't. For many of these companies, the point of pulling out of Russia is to impact the local economy. Even those who don't necessarily supply tons of critical products to the area are encouraged by business ethics experts to leave the country, noting that it's critical for companies to show that they're committed to, "upholding standards of good environmental, social and corporate governance," Russian policy expert Fiona Hill told Fast Company. In keeping with those ideals, yet another company has announced its intention to exit Russia, stage left, and it's a biggie!
KFC is getting out of Russia
Yum Brands, Inc. has announced that it's about to sell all of its KFC franchise rights and restaurants, after which the company will pull out of Russia. KFC is being sold there to a "local buyer," according to Reuters. This will affect roughly 1,000 sites in Russia, which are almost completely operated under franchise contracts or by independent operators. This exodus can't come a minute too soon for companies opposed to the war — the Russian government recently announced that it will take action against companies from outside the country.
This isn't the first brand that Yum has sold in Russia. The company also recently announced a similar sale of Pizza Huts in Putin's land. Those sites will be re-branded by the new owner. The company stated, "This builds on the Company's prior actions to suspend operations of all company-owned restaurants, halt all investment and restaurant development efforts, and redirect any profits from Russia operations to humanitarian efforts."
In a similar vein, the former McDonald's in Russia has a new name after the chain's restaurants were sold and packaging and marketing was re-tooled (via Business Insider). The new name is Vkusno & tochka, which translates to "Tasty and That's It."