Bottom line: Caffebene could become the first big victim of an unsustainable Chinese coffee explosion, while KFC’s new lawsuit against rumor mongers reflects one of the many challenges it will face as it tries to rebuild its China image.
A couple of new China fast-food headlines reflect the rapidly changing environment, as traditional players like KFC (NSYE: YUM) try to move upscale to attract consumers who now have many more choices than they did a decade ago. The upscale move has seen a massive explosion in premium coffee shops, which is behind one headline that has South Korean giant Caffebene showing signs of distress following its recent aggressive China expansion.
Meantime, the other more humorous headline has KFC suing 3 companies for spreading false rumors about its products on social media, including one saying it uses chickens that have 8 legs. On a more serious note, this story comes as KFC struggles to regain its skidding China momentum, and shows that Beijing isn’t the only one frustrated over the kind of rumor-mongering that regularly happens on popular services like Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) and Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat. Read Full Post…
