You're reading: Make way for Kentucky Fried, Chicken Kiev

Ukraine’s signature poultry dish, the Chicken Kiev, will soon have an American-inspired competitor.

The world’s third largest fast-food
restaurant chain, known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, or simply KFC, has branded
premium space at the newly opened Ocean Plaza shopping mall near the Lybidska
metro station in Kyiv. In oversized letters, the future restaurant is recruiting
employees and lists a telephone number.

A spokesperson for Yum! Brands in Moscow –
the parent company of KFC as well as other fast-food chains such as Taco Bell
and Pizza Hut – said he will confirm the restaurant expansion in Ukraine “only
after the eatery opens” and promised to invite the Kyiv Post to the door
opening ceremony.

The Moscow office of Yum! Brands reportedly
is overseeing the restaurant’s foray into Ukraine.

In
March when the Kyiv Post first reported about KFC’s entry into Ukraine
, the
company official Illya Politkovsky said KFC restaurants here would use a
multi-franchising ownership structure and that the main features of the KFC
Russian menu will be offered to Ukrainian customers.

Politkovsky added in March that refrigerated
chicken, not frozen, will be exclusively offered.

KFC’s Russian website offers classical
buckets of chicken legs and wings, chicken strips, sandwiches and wraps. Unlike
U.S.-based KFC outlets, the Russian menu offers chicken shish kabobs, beer and
Belgian waffles as a dessert option, among other region-specific items.

The minimum financial requirement to open a
KFC outlet in the U.S., according to the company’s website, is $1.5 million net
worth, and $750,000 in liquid assets. The website added that financial
requirements vary from country to country.

KFC was founded by Kentucky resident
Harland Sanders in 1952. Sanders was named an honorary Kentucky Colonel in 1936
by that state’s Governor Ruby Laffoon in recognition of his contribution to the
state’s cuisine.

Based in Louisville, Kentucky, KFC has more
than 15,000 restaurants in 105 countries and territories around the world,
according to Yum! Brands’ website.

Kyiv
Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected]