LONDON (SHARECAST) - The credit crunch has failed to put Britons off their fast food, prompting Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to open up to 300 new restaurants and create 9,000 jobs.
Its cheaper food is proving a big draw during hard times, leaving the firm confident enough to set aside £150m for an expansion plan.
The new outlets, which will add to the 760 existing UK restaurants, are set to open up over the next three to five years.
"We are seeing really strong growth," said KFC chief Martin Shuker. Sales at the chain, which employs over 20,000 in the UK, rose by 6% in 2008 and are already up 14% so far this year.
KFC opened 36 new restaurants last year and expects another 44 to start up in 2009. It owns 38% of its outlets directly, with the rest franchised.
Just a few weeks ago, American sandwich chain Subway said it would create 7,000 jobs by opening 600 new stores across Britain and Ireland over the next two years.
The US firm, which already has over 1,400 outlets in the UK and Ireland owned by 660 franchisees, will invest more than £60m in its expansion by the end of 2010.
It only had 25 stores this side of the Atlantic in 2000, but now employs more than 16,000. Twenty-two outlets have already opened in the past few months, adding 264 jobs.
meanwhile, supermarket giant Asda and satellite TV titan BSkyB have 8,000 vacancies between them.
Asda, owned by US retail behemoth Wal-Mart, will add 7,000 jobs in 2009, with 3,700 of them linked to 14 new stores and the expansion of 15 existing outlets.
BSkyB says it will need 1,000 extra staff to help it cope with an expected surge in demand after slashing the cost of its Sky+ HD set-top box to £49.
Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have already said they’re each employing another 5,000 staff, while Tesco wants as many as 10,000 more and Waitrose 4,000.
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