Popeyes is buying up 28 former KFC locations, mostly in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
This all happened because the KFC franchisee went bankrupt, and there are 21 more restaurants that it has closed down. Popeyes is currently trying to get approval to purchase the rest.
Carol Tice at Forbes calls it "a move that sums up the ascendance of one surging brand and the decline of another."
But KFC's not going to lie down and get beaten by Popeyes. The statement the company gave Tice is evidence that it's going to try to put up a fight:
“KFC Corporation is intimately involved and intends to make every effort to see that as many restaurants as possible continue to operate as KFC restaurants with the same employee teams but under new ownership.”
Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder made it abundantly clear in an interview with us in October that KFC's not her prime concern. She wants to compete with the whole top five of the fast food segment, including McDonald's and Wendy's.
But, at their hearts, the bone-in chicken chains will always be archrivals, and Popeyes' grab of all these dead KFCs has to be hitting a nerve.
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