食品安全重創後 肯德基又遭禽流感打擊

肯德基母公司百盛集團警告稱，最近中國爆發的新型禽流感疫情或將嚴重影響該公司旗下餐廳本月的銷售額。該公司還宣佈，受此前食品安全醜聞的影響，3月份該公司在中國市場的銷售額降幅也超過預期。百勝集團在週三的監管文件中表示，過去一週中國有關禽流感的相關宣傳報道對肯德基的銷售額產生嚴重的負面影響，但未透露具體數據。截至4月10日，中國內地已報告33例H7N9禽流感病例，9人死亡。百盛集團一半以上的銷售額來自中國市場，而中國的近5300多家餐廳大部分爲肯德基餐廳。去年肯德基受到雞肉化學藥物殘留的影響，在中國市場經營困難。百勝集團在中國市場的3月份銷售額下降13%，超過分析師預計的10%。

KFC parent Yum Brands Inc warned that a new bird flu outbreak in China badly hit restaurant sales there this month, even as the company also reported a sharper-than-expected slide in March sales in the country caused by the lingering impact of a separate food safety scare.

"Within the past week, publicity associated with avian flu in China has had a significant, negative impact on KFC sales," the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Yum did not quantify the impact.

The bird flu outbreak has already sickened 33 and killed nine, as Chinese authorities try to clamp down on rumors about the deadly virus and its potential spread.

Yum reaps more than half its overall sales in China, where most of its nearly 5,300 restaurants are KFCs. It was already struggling in the country after chemical residue was found in a small portion of its chicken supply late last year.

"This will set them back a little bit. If those (bird flu casualty) numbers go up, then the impact could be longer," said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo.

Sales at Yum's China restaurants open at least one year fell 13 percent in March, more than the 10 percent average drop expected by analysts polled by Consensus Matrix.

The March results included a 16 percent drop at KFC and a 4 percent rise at Pizza Hut.

The company plans to educate consumers, as it has done in the past, that properly cooked chicken is safe to eat, Yum said in Wednesday's filing.

In February, KFC's sales were flat in China, which had given analysts some hope a turnaround was already taking hold.

While the March results were disappointing, they may show that the effects of the timing shift of the all-important Chinese New Year holiday on January and February were bigger than expected.

"I don't think we should interpret this, necessarily, as a step back," Sanford Bernstein research analyst Sara Senatore said.

Yum shares fell more than 2 percent to $65.20 in extended trading following the report. Yum's stock traded around $72 in late March before reports of the first deaths from the novel strain of avian flu.