Ｔｈｅ Ｗａｒ ｉｎ Ｆａｓｔ Ｆｏｏｄ Ｄｅｌｉｖｅｒｙ Ｓｅｒｖｉｃｅ

The war among the fast food giants has never been stopped and it seems impossible to stop it. This time, the flames of war are spread from the stores to the fast food delivery service.

T

he takeout menus of MacDonalds and KFC are sent to the residence communities,” said a lady living in a deluxe residence community of Guangzhou. Recently, she always could find takeout menus from the fast food stores in her mailbox, including the ones from KFC and MacDonalds.

Due to the financial crisis, the western or Chinese fast food giants subsequently begin to try the non-store operation pattern in order to save the operation cost, spreading the war to the field of fast food delivery service.

At the beginning of May KFC introduced the “Favorable Website” through which customers can order food online. MacDonalds launched the 24-hour fast food delivery service in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and some other major cities in China. Following the two international fast food giants is Kungfu, a newly-founded and well-developed fast food company in China.

According to the introduction from Zhang Jiayin, Vice President of MacDonalds China and Chief Marketing Officer, MacDonalds farms out its fast food delivery service to the other companies which enables the food to be sent to the customers in 30 minutes despite the rush hour of the restaurants, the bad weather and the drastic increase of the orders. Meanwhile, the operation of the normal restaurants will not be influenced.

“Presently, our fast food delivery service has covered 80% of our restaurants in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. 80% of our restaurants in China are open to customers for 24 hours a day,” said Kenneth Chan, CEO of MacDonalds China. MacDonalds considers the fast food delivery service as a new strong growth point for the long-term business development in China. According to the insider, only when the sales amount of a new business takes 20% to 30% of the total amount of the enterprise can it be seen as the new growth point of profit.

Unlike MacDonalds, KFCs fast food delivery service depends on its already-exiting staff system, which means that the fast food deliverers of KFC are its workers. Its competitive power derives from the number of restaurants they have opened in China. According to the statistics, KFC has more than 2300 stores in China. The sphere of influence of KFC is nearly twice larger than MacDonalds. Its fast food delivery service has entered some secondary and third-tier cities of China.

When the two international fast food giants are fighting against each other for more market share in Chinas fast food delivery industry, the Chinese fast food enterprise Kungfu also enters into this field. Kungfu has already made new experiments in many aspects of this field and gained positive achievements. Right now people are fighting against the “swine flu” and the turnover of Kungfus fast food delivery has seen an obvious increase.

The entry into the fast food delivery service is closely tied with the status quo of those fast food giants development in China. Every month KFC and MacDonalds launch new activities of promoting sales through cutting price. The furious price war results in the shrink of the profits of the restaurants.

The fast food delivery service, which depends on the already-existing restaurants, can cover a larger place with more customers without taking the seats of restaurants. Under the current economic and market condition, fast food delivery service has been the new battlefield of the fast food giants in China.

However, Jing Linbo, Deputy Director of the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics, the Chinese Academy of Social Science, thought that the fast food delivery is the new growth point of fast food enterprises. But the fast food enterprises should have certain comprehensive strength to do this service, including the quick reacting information system, safe and reliable logistics system, guarantee of foods quality and scientific division of work between the restaurants and call centers.

Since MacDonalds and KFC have the will to foster the fast food delivery service to be the new growth point for their business, they still need to lengthen the service period, enlarge the covering area of service and keep food fresh and warm during the deliveries. Therefore, Jing Linbo advises those fast food enterprises to seek the balance between the 24-hour delivery service and the profits, the balance between building information system and logistics system by themselves and farming out those to the other companies and the balance between fast food delivery service and restaurant service.