1/8/22 - Weekend Listening from Intercontinental Exchange
Our guest this week: Tracy Skeans, Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer of Yum! Brands
At some point in my distant memory, my now 17-year-old son ate a hot dog.
I’m thinking George W. Bush was still president when it happened. Ever since then, while I remain a confirmed carnivore, he’s been a strict vegetarian. He’s tall, strong, and fast, and believes he has no place in his diet for products of slaughter. His younger sister followed suit which, for better part of this century, has curtailed family visits to most fast food chains.
But is a takeout bucket of fried chicken in our near future?
Starting Monday, KFC restaurants, the big unit of Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) will start selling plant-based Beyond Fried Chicken, from Beyond Meat Inc. at its nearly 4,000 stores across the United States. The boy has enjoyed Beyond Meat burgers and sausages for years. A foray into the world of vegetarian poultry may be forthcoming.
“It’s no longer fringe for a company to be doing this — it’s becoming mainstream, and more are seeing it as a necessity” to offer plant-based options, Tufts University economist Sean Cash told the Washington Post.
For KFC, the campaign to overcome “the veto vote” that kept some customers from the chain’s “Finger Lickin’ Good” menu has been long underway. They first tested the product at an Atlanta restaurant in 2019 and sold out their supply in less than five hours. Results from similar tests in Nashville, Charlotte and southern California confirmed its appeal.
It’s all part of Yum!’s aggressive sustainability program to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, in partnership with its franchisees, suppliers and producers. My colleague Pete Asch spoke about the effort with Yum!’s COO, Tracy Skeans, in this week’s episode of Inside the ICE House.
The view from Louisville:
Yum! Brands Cooks up the Recipe for Growth and Good Tracy Skeans, Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer of Yum! Brands has helped position the world’s largest restaurant company for continued growth by combining a people-first approach, investing in infrastructure, and using technology to enhance the customer and employee experience. She explains how the company thrived during the pandemic by making acquisitions, increasing its digital acceleration, and focusing on diversity and inclusivity from top to bottom.
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