MICK FOODY: If there's one place you'd expect to never run out of chicken, it's KFC. But back in 2018, KFC did just that. They ran out of chicken. Fried chicken lovers alike were left wondering when and how they'll get their next fix of the secret herbs and spices. My name is Mick Foody, and today on Food Thoughts, we roll back the years and revisit the day KFC ran out of chicken. 

The problem began back in 2017, when KFC made one of their riskiest plays yet. They hired DHL as their chosen food distributor across Europe. DHL were in charge of both supply and distribution of food products and packaging for over 800 restaurants throughout the UK. 

KFC'S old distributor, Bidvest, had been partnered with KFC for decades, and so little to no problems while working alongside them. The good old saying "Why change something that's not broken?" springs to mind. When KFC made the switch to DHL, Bidvest lost millions of dollars and even had to lay some staff off due to reduced work, completely throwing a long-standing distribution partner under the bus. 

Yet, the supply chain director for KFC, Jens Hentschel, said that the switch to DHL was to take advantage of the company's innovation in logistics across other industries. However, the partnership didn't really make sense, as DHL are known for their home parcel delivery service rather than food distribution, which they have little knowledge and expertise on, especially when it comes to managing an operation as big as KFC's. 

With the General Trade Union in the UK branding the supply issue as a "'bird-brained' contract decision," within just weeks of taking over, DHL were struggling to keep up with the workload as they were operating out of a single distribution center in Rugby, England. Due to KFC's mass demand and DHL's struggle to keep up with the workload, many restaurants across the UK were running out of ingredients and running out fast. And by February the 20th, it all came crashing down, as KFC had no other choice but to close its doors, a decision that supposedly cost KFC around 4.2 million pounds a week. 

But it was not only KFC and its customers suffering. It was the workers, too. This is because some KFC restaurants are KFC-owned, whilst others are just franchisee operations. The KFC-owned restaurants continued to pay their employees while the franchise operators were free to make their own decisions, meaning that some workers were left unpaid. 

One worker who contacted the BBC said that he had not received any shifts for the past week. The problem isn't our fault, but we are the ones who can't work. I've got bills that have to come out on a Friday, and I feel terrible. And by February the 21st, all KFC restaurants in the UK were forced to close. Overnight, KFC became the fast food laughingstock, with hashtags such as #KFCCrisis, #ChickenCrisis and #KFCClosed all trending on Twitter, just like how angry this woman was. 

- I've had to go to Burger King. 

MICK FOODY: Some customers were taking it to another level, however, calling police stations and reporting an emergency, causing police to issue statements telling the public it's not an emergency and to stop wasting precious police time. Police in Manchester released an audio recording of one call they received in an attempt to get people to stop calling. 

DISPATCHER (ON PHONE): Hello, police emergency. 

MAN (ON PHONE): Hi, I've got an emergency here. Basically, I don't know how you feel about this, but KFC is closed. I'm really not happy. I have to go to Burger King now, then-- 

DISPATCHER (ON PHONE): You don't speak to the police about it. Full stop. It's not a police matter. 

MAN (ON PHONE): Oh, is it not? 

DISPATCHER (ON PHONE): No. Thank you. Bye bye. 

MICK FOODY: Amongst the chaos, KFC's chief marketing officer for the UK and Ireland came out and said, "To be honest, the company was on its knees. We have 26,000 team members across the UK and Ireland taking abuse from customers day in and day out." KFC's reputation was taking a pounding, and the company had to act fast before the damage spiraled out of control. 

So what was KFC's answer? A good, old-fashioned marketing campaign. KFC turned to its creative marketing agency, Mother. They identified that 71% of the UK's population visits KFC at least once a year, and 24% of those visit monthly, meaning that the apology had to be spread nationwide. 

Due to the sheer number of people KFC needed to reach, it was decided that print media would be the best to achieve its goals rather than social media, as print is often perceived to be more trustworthy. The two newspapers KFC selected to run their ad through was The Sun and the Metro, a combined readership of nearly 6 million people. The campaign set out to achieve two things, an apology that would rebuild its reputation amongst customers and an explanation of what went wrong. 

The campaign was nothing short of genius, titled FCK, an anagram for KFC. The bold, down-to-Earth manner set out to recapture the hearts of customers through humor, using comedic lines such as "A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It's not ideal." "It's been a hell of a week, but we're making progress, and every day, more and more fresh chicken is being delivered to our restaurants." 

The ad ended by directing customers to a dedicated website where humor was again used to disarm customer frustration. The ad, which was published to the two newspapers on February the 23rd, received tremendous praise, and customers found the humor in it. The ad prompted more than 700 individual press articles, TV discussions and countless social media posts, which in turn saw an estimated reach of around 797 million people worldwide. 

In the weeks following the advert, KFC slowly, but surely began restoring operations, stripping DHL of some duties and reinstating their partnership once again by Bidvest. So I guess the morale of KFC's chicken shortage story is not to change what's been working for decades. 

If you enjoyed today's video, why not drop a like and subscribe to the Food Thoughts YouTube channel? And let us know down below what food-related topics you'd like to see us cover next? Anyway, until next time, this was Mick Foody on the day KFC ran out of chicken.