At the owner of the Pizza Hut, KFC and Frango Assado chains, one eye on expansion and the other on delivery

Alexandre Santoro, global CEO of the International Meal Company (IMC), owner of the brands KFC, Pizza Hut, Frango Assado, among others, in Brazil, arrived at the company in 2021, when the second wave of Covid-19 came and many restaurants were not could open to the public.

Faced with the post-pandemic effects, in recent years, the company had to close units, renegotiate and extend debts and get rid of stores and catering in Panama and Colombia and sell the Olive Garden restaurants it had in Brazil.

The restructuring of the company, today with 600 restaurants, more than 11 thousand employees and revenue of R$2.4 billion last year, was more than necessary for Santoro to be able to “put the ball on the ground” and analyze the fast-food game. food more calmly.

“We clearly saw that it was impossible to focus on everything, it was dispersing our attention and finances”, says Santoro in an interview with the program É Negócio, a partnership with NeoFeed with CNN Brasil, which will air on Sunday, April 28, at 8:45 pm on TV and on all CNN Brasil platforms.

The focus is now clearer. “We see growth potential for Frango Assado, KFC and Pizza Hut,” says Santoro. And it continues. “It has a very large avenue, there are very strong brands, recognized, loved, profitable and still little penetrated.”

Units of the Frango Assado chain, for example, are only found on São Paulo roads. KFC and Pizza Hut stores are, for the most part, in shopping malls. Precisely for this reason, the next wave of expansion will be in high street stores. Especially because, according to Santoro, the movement in shopping malls decreased and delivery gained a lot of importance.

In the case of KFC, for example, delivery did not exist. The brand had 70 stores and today there are 200. Delivery and digital channels now represent 30% of revenue. And this happens across all brands. This obviously poses a cost challenge for the company.

But, being left out of platforms like iFood, Rappi, and others, is unthinkable. “I would say that it is no longer possible to survive without delivery and digital channels”, says the CEO of IMC. Therefore, in the street stores that will be opened, specific areas will be created to make deliveries more agile.

In the interview, which can be watched live at the link below, Santoro talks about consumer behavior, the resilience of food retail, mistakes he made, comments on his experience as global CEO of Popeyes in the United States and much more.