Over the last week and a half, the country has been in a chicken-craving-chaos as KFC had to shut over two thirds of their stores on 18th February, with only 266 of the 870 locations still running. It has even been reported that chicken lovers have been contacting the police- who have warned that “fried chicken is not a police matter”. The cause, which was first thought to just be a shortage of their main ingredient (chicken), is actually much more complex and involves their extremely recent switch to the logistics partner, DHL.

On February 14, a crash between 7 vehicles occurred on the M6. One man was killed, so police shut off the area between junctions 2 and 3. Later that day, yet another collision took place around junction 1. As junction 1,2 and 3 are located close to Rugby, where the DHL depot is based. Due to the fact that there is no other location to send deliveries from, KFC’s shortage problem started. A spokesman from DHL has stated "Whilst we are not the only partly responsible for the supply chain to KFC, we do apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused to KFC and their customers by this incident.” In a tweet posted by KFC, they stated that they had to close some branches as they do not wish to compromise the quality of food. Although there have been many questions regarding the mistakes made by the company and DHL, the situation has taken a comedic tone, with many jokes being posted online. With many twitter users claiming that the world is soon to end, and that the situation is an “apocalypse” , KFC hasn’t been put under much scrutiny as they have been able to the humour themselves by  putting on their website “KFC runs out of chicken-you couldn’t make it up.” It was even reported that one store had employees visibly ‘sneaking’ in meat from a local butcher, due to the determination to provide to customers.

Over the weeks following the chicken shortage, KFC have gradually been reopening branches all over England, although many having to sell a limited menu. A feature that KFC prides themselves on is their use of fresh chicken, yet at this moment this is bittersweet, as entire lorries of chicken have had to be put in waste due to it ‘spoiling’, meaning an increase in food refuse. We all hope to see one of the country’s favourite fast food chains fully back in action soon.