食品安全重创后 肯德基又遭禽流感打击

肯德基母公司百盛集团警告称，最近中国爆发的新型禽流感疫情或将严重影响该公司旗下餐厅本月的销售额。该公司还宣布，受此前食品安全丑闻的影响，3月份该公司在中国市场的销售额降幅也超过预期。百胜集团在周三的监管文件中表示，过去一周中国有关禽流感的相关宣传报道对肯德基的销售额产生严重的负面影响，但未透露具体数据。截至4月10日，中国内地已报告33例H7N9禽流感病例，9人死亡。百盛集团一半以上的销售额来自中国市场，而中国的近5300多家餐厅大部分为肯德基餐厅。去年肯德基受到鸡肉化学药物残留的影响，在中国市场经营困难。百胜集团在中国市场的3月份销售额下降13%，超过分析师预计的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.