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KFC Indonesia closes more stores as anti-Israel boycott causes surge in loss
The US fast food chain’s local operator also laid off more staff as its loss more than tripled in the third quarter
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KFC Indonesia has accelerated store closures and lay-offs to stem mounting losses as a long-running campaign to boycott products over their perceived links to Israel shows no sign of easing.
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Fast Food Indonesia, which operates the American chain in the Southeast Asian nation, said uneven recovery from the pandemic and consumer anger at Israel’s war in Gaza have dealt a blow to its bottom lines.
The company recorded a loss of 557.08 billion rupiah (US$35.2 million) in the third quarter of this year, a 266.45 per cent slump from the same period last year, it said in a statement last week.
The hit to its business prompted the firm to close 47 outlets and sack 2,274 workers over the past year.
The first KFC opened in Jakarta in 1979 and it currently has 715 branches across the country.
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In Indonesia, several Western brands, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, have earned the wrath of customers soon after the conflict erupted on October 7 last year.
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