？By Wang Zhuoqiong
BEIJING Dion Phaneuf Jersey , Aug. 21 (Xinhuanet) --Yum Brands Inc, owner of KFC and Pizza Hut chains, has revamped its top management team in China after incumbent chairman and chief executive Sam Su retired from his post.
Su, who was instrumental in the fast-food chain's expansion and setting up of more than 4,000 KFC restaurants in the country, will be replaced by company veteran Micky Pant, currently CEO of the KFC unit.
Su will, however, serve as executive adviser till February next year and remain on Yum's board to assist with the transition. The new management is set to take the helm at a time when the fast-food chain has been witnessing sluggish sales and reeling from a tainted meat scandal.
The company also said that Joey Wat, 44, the president of KFC China, and Peter Kao, 58, senior vice-president and brand general manager of Pizza Hut China, have been promoted to the position of chief executive officer of KFC and Pizza Hut, respectively, and report to Pant.
Greg Creed, chief executive officer of Yum Brands, acknowledged Su's key role in building up the company's presence in China over the years. "Su is a restaurant industry pioneer who established KFC and Pizza Hut as global powerhouses in the world's fastest-growing economy," Creed said.
Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research Group, said Su, who was with Yum in China since inception, was the right person to run the brand at a time when it had just four stores and little competition. "But it is a different ball game to run 4,000 stores," he said.
"Yum has been slow to adjust to changing consumer demands. The company is banking on the new management team to implement these changes quickly and regain trust and confidence of consumers," Cavender said.
In July last year, Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd, a supplier to McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut, was found to be using expired meat in its products. The scandal has left a lingering impression on Chinese consumers and weakened fast-food chains performance.
Yum posted a 4 percent fall in China sales during the second-quarter. Restaurant margins decreased by 2.2 percentage points to 14.6 percent, while operating profit declined by 25 percent.
The fast-food giant's performance was in stark contrast to the strong performance of the food and beverage industry in China during the first seven months, according to the China Cuisine Association. The industry recorded a year-on-year growth of 11.6 percent and revenue of 1.76 trillion yuan ($275 billion) between January and July.
The weak performance of Yum in China, particularly KFC, reflects a change in the retail environment in China and changing consumer preferences, according to Jason Yu, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel China.
"The increasingly affluent middle-class consumers in China, especially in the first-and second-tier cities, have more choices in terms of dining and eating out and hence focus more on food safety," said Yu.
Despite efforts to diversify its menu and launch new marketing initiatives to attract younger consumers, KFC still needs to do a lot to rebuild its brand image and create a clear differentiation to stand out from competition, said Yu. The company also needs to grow more aggressively through franchises in lower tier cities and come up with new ways of reaching more consumers digitally, he said.
Yum is planning to open at least 700 new restaurants this year. The restaurant chain has 6,853 outlets in China. Among them, 4,889 are KFCs, 1,388 Pizza Hut restaurants and 276 home service units of Pizza Hut.
(Source: Chinadaily)
Sacha Baron Cohen
British comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen has pulled out of a long-planned film about flamboyant Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Industry journal cited his manager as saying the withdrawal was due to "creative differences" with producers over the movie's tone.
"Sacha has pulled out," the actor's publicist Matthew Labov told AFP in an e-mail, declining to give any other details.
The as-yet untitled film is being made by GK Films, in partnership with Hollywood A-lister Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.
Baron Cohen - whose hit movie characters include bumbling Kazakh reporter Borat, gay Austrian fashionista Bruno and wannabe gangster Ali G - was confirmed as linked to the project nearly three years ago.
Peter Morgan - who scripted the films FrostNixon and The Queen - has written the screenplay for the film. He planned to focus on the years leading up to Queen's stellar performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert.
Mercury died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991 at the age of 45.
Queen - Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon - is one of the world's bestselling bands.
The British rockers' hits include "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975), "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" (1977), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1979), "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980) and "These Are the Days of Our Lives" (1991).
Baron Cohen is working on a spy spoof for Hollywood studio Paramount, focused on a secret agent who goes on the run with his football hooligan brother, according to the BBC.
He has written and will also star in the film.
He is also working on a film called The Lesbian, about a billionaire who offers a large sum of money to a man who can woo and marry his lesbian daughter, according to the IMDb movie industry website. The project is based on a real story involving a Hong Kong shipping magnate Cecil Chao.
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