KFC Kenya’s Social Media ‘Chips’ Crisis Leads To Sustainable Business Transformation.

Back in January 2022, KFC got into a bit of a social media crisis in Kenya when they posted what looked like a genuinely well meaning update that they had run out of chips. Initially, this looked humorous and to some of us quite baffling but what happened next is what gets interesting.

Apparently, it came to light, for the very first time with Kenyan consumers, that KFC had run out of chips since their supply chain had issues as all their chips were actually sourced from outside Kenya and more specifically from Egypt. It seemed incredulous to say the least!

To make matters even more baffling, according to KFC, using their global and standardised procurement model, the quality of Kenyan potatoes was not considered compatible, or, good enough for their chips production. What happened next is the stuff of social media legend in Kenya!

KFC, without realising what they had done, outraged consumers far and wide in Kenya who went on a social media tirade to complain that KFC was undermining the quality of Kenyan potatoes and this led to a very real social media crisis for them.

It got even tastier when KFC’s competitors went on a charm offensive to reassure irate Kenyan consumers that they used potatoes from Kenya to make their chips and they were more than happy to host them and their families for their 100% Kenyan sourced chips.

It was clearly a pickle for KFC so they had to take action after this flare up over something seemingly innocuous that triggered many Kenyan consumers at scale on social media. For the record, Kenyans take their potatoes, or, ‘waru’, as they are affectionately known in Kikuyu, very very seriously!

In the coming months, KFC started a journey of looking for Kenyan producers who could supply them with locally sourced potatoes going forward. As I seem to recall, one or more suppliers eventually made the cut and KFC started sourcing a portion of their potatoes locally for chips production.

Fast forward to August 2024 and I saw this billboard yesterday announcing that KFC chips are now sourced entirely locally, and therefore ‘made in Kenya’. This is such a great story and especially in the increasingly important area of ‘sustainability’ for every business when everyone is concerned about how they operate in areas of environment, sustainability and governance, also known as ‘ESG’.

The most important aspect of this story on KFC going local for its chips is that its a classic case of how a social media crisis can become a key driver of business transformation leading to a commitment to do things right in a contextually relevant manner. Kenyan farm produce is as good as the best in the world and kudos to KFC for doing the hard things to make it work!