In January, more than 900 KFC restaurants in the United Kingdom were forced to shut down temporarily due to a serious lack of supplies. Many KFC locations were left without important menu items like fries, coleslaw, and chicken. The mishap occurred after DHL, the company that recently partnered up with KFC to handle shipments in the UK, experienced what it called “operational issues” at a warehouse in Warwickshire. Those issues later forced KFC to strip DHL of some of its responsibilities and turn back to its former supplier for many of its shipping needs.
There are a couple things all companies can learn from the KFC and DHL fiasco. One of the most important ones is that large-scale companies like KFC—and frankly, even some smaller companies—should not use a shipping carrier that relies on a sole warehouse. In this case, DHL utilized a single warehouse to try and store all of KFC’s supplies, and when that warehouse experienced problems, it led to a catastrophe for KFC. Had DHL spread KFC’s supplies out in other warehouses, the problems would have been a lot less widespread and likely wouldn’t have generated the negative publicity they did.
The KFC and DHL fiasco also proved that companies that utilize warehouses should always have contingency plans in place in case of disaster. Unfortunately, DHL hadn’t tested their KFC distribution center properly when they first started serving the chicken company. Therefore, when their logistics failed them, there were no quick solutions in place. It led to a major backlog of chicken in their lone warehouse and made it impossible for KFC stores to get the supplies they needed.
Unfortunately, DHL is ultimately going to have to pay the price for what happened and miss out on much of the business KFC was prepared to send their way. You should know that, if your company specializes in storing, shipping, or logistics, you don’t need to meet the same fate. Affiliated Warehouse Companies can help you get access to the warehouses you need and put logistics in place that will work for you.
Call us at 732-739-2323 today to learn about the services we can provide.
