KFC has announced that its UK & Ireland chief operating officer Rob Swain has been appointed to the same role at KFC Global, effective from January 2022.
He will be replaced by Lucy Taylor, who has been the COO in the MenaPakT region (Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey) for the past seven years.
Over the past five years, Swain has led KFC through the distribution crisis in 2018 to the more recent COVID response.
He joined the brand as an area coach in 2009, and worked in the Central & Eastern Europe team from, before returning to the UK&I team in 2016.
Paula MacKenzie, general manager at KFC UK & Ireland, said: “I’d like to personally thank Rob for his incredible commitment to our business over the last five years. He’s been front and centre as we’ve tackled some of our biggest hurdles – and we simply couldn’t have made it through without his leadership and tireless commitment to operational excellence. We wish him all the very best in his new role and look forward to continuing to work together – we’re proud that restaurants across the world will now benefit from his leadership.
“At the same time, I am delighted to welcome Lucy back to KFC UKI and cannot wait to begin working with her. We’ve got a really strong belief in internal opportunity at KFC, as these moves demonstrate.”
KFC’s Paula MacKenzie will taking part in an exclusive Q&A at MCA’s Restaurant Conference on 3 November, where she will discuss how the muscle memory of KFC’s chicken shortage in 2018 helped it to better cope with the pandemic (and to come back even stronger); and how a distinctive approach to marketing has helped transform the brand’s cultural relevance and sales. To find out more about the event and to book your ticket please click here.
