Is Genesis BBQ chief out of touch with reality?
來源：開云體育app官方網站發布日期：2023-01-31 19:36:10 瀏覽：2
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| Genesis BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Yoon vows to make fried chicken chain surpass McDonald's
By Kim Jae-heun
Genesis BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun is raising eyebrows among industry analysts for his recent remarks that Korea's No.3 fried chicken restaurant chain aims to beat McDonald's and become the world's No.1 fast food franchise.
Analysts said Yoon knows it is almost impossible for BBQ to become the world's largest, given that it is not even the biggest in the country, where it is outrivaled by bhc and Kyochon. The chairman has often made unrealistic remarks in the past in order to attract media attention, they said, stressing that people shouldn't pay too much attention to what Yoon says.
In 2021, the country's largest fried chicken chain bhc earned 616.4 billion won ($53.84 million) in sales, followed by Kyochon F&B with 506.6 billion won. BBQ has yet to reveal its business performance for last year, but its sales are expected to have reached somewhere in the 300 billion won range. McDonald's 2021 revenue reached $23.22 billion globally.
In terms of the number of stores, BBQ currently runs 2,250 restaurants in 58 countries, while McDonald's operates 39,198 stores worldwide. Chairman Yoon said he plans to open 50,000 BBQ restaurants in the future, but did not mention by when.
"Yoon said the same thing in 2014. Back then, the chairman said he would open 10,000 stores around the world by 2020. I guess he wants to dream big. The fried chicken industry is questioning the reality of his dream. It is hard for a company to increase the number of its restaurants explosively, even looking at the long term," an industry official said on condition of anonymity.
A Kyochon F&B official said the franchise business is not as easy as people think. "Each country has its own merchant business act and Korean firms are not used to it. In America, you have to have a lawyer involved to operate a franchise business and it is not as simple as doing it in Korea," the official said.
McDonald's Korea refused to comment on this issue.
BBQ and Chairman Yoon have both been embroiled in a number of controversies over the years.
In 2018, a former BBQ employee surnamed Joo accused Yoon of embezzling 17 billion won in company funds to pay his children's tuition over the past eight years. BBQ accused bhc of instigating Joo to disclose the scandal to tarnish BBQ's reputation. The fried chicken franchise sue bhc for defamation of its chairman.
In April 2017, bhc filed a lawsuit against BBQ for unilaterally terminating a contract to provide logistics services for 10 years. BBQ alleged that bhc had stolen its corporate secrets and it had to end the deal; bhc demanded 236 billion won in compensation, and the Seoul Eastern District Court ruled in favor of bhc.
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