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Kentucky Fried Chicken returns to Israel

KFC will join McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s as American restaurants hitting the Israeli marketplace.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

A famous American fast-food chain is making a return to Israel.

Kentucky Fried Chicken hasn’t been in Israel since 2012. In late August, however, KFC announced a comeback and is now looking for employees, Globes reported.

The chain has not yet publicized the location or the number of franchises it plans to open in Israel, but it is expected to open sooner rather than later.

This will be the fourth time KFC has launched in Israel, with stints during the 1980s, 1990s and from 2003 until 2012.

Franchisee Udi Shamai said that during KFC’s 2003-2012 stretch in Israel, he struggled because they began following the kosher dietary laws rather than continuing to use the chicken supplied by the global chain, which contained milk powder. They substituted the milk with soya.

At the time, there were eight KFC restaurants in the Jewish state.

“The moment we switched to kosher, sales began to plunge and it was no longer economically viable,” Shamai told Globes.

KFC is owned by American corporate giant Yum Brands Inc. which is traded on Nasdaq with a market cap of $29 billion, according to Globes. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s, with 45,000 outlets in over 135 countries.