At work, Joey is known as Wat’s CEO Yum China. At home, his son knows him as the “chicken killer”.
Actually, it’s a nickname related to success KFC China: One of the company’s many fast food brands, including Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Speaking in 2024 luck Global Forum, Wat said that KFC China “kills 1 billion chickens a year”.
To put that figure into context, the country is home to 1.4 billion people, and according to Wat, they eat 8 billion chickens a year, which means that KFC accounts for a large portion of the lean protein consumed by China.
The secret behind its popularity isn’t a slick marketing team or even AI.
Instead, Wat noted that he personally sits in KFC restaurants for “two, three hours” watching customers eat, and has inspired some of the company’s biggest successes.
“So apparently when kids eat fried chicken, they eat it with mashed potatoes,” he said, noting that Gen Zers were literally dipping their drumsticks into a side dish and then back into the bowl of gravy.
“What we can do with that vision is remove the bone,” he said, adding that they launched a boneless “mashed potato burger.”
“Oh my God, it sold so well because this is a children’s mode.”
Adding fragrant fruit to the pizza
It is not the first time that customers’ eating habits have been seen to be fruitful: “Right now the pizza sold at Pizza Hut in China is not Supreme (full of peppers, pork, beef, mushrooms, peppers and onions). It’s durian pizza with cheese.”
The Southeast Asian fruit is so sour that it is banned in many places on public transport, hotels and airports.
“It smells so strong,” Wat said. “(If you come to the store (and) you don’t like the durian pizza, our solution is, please go out.”
“Thankfully we didn’t need approval from Yum! the owner of the brand,” he added. becoming one independent company In 2016, Wat’s team didn’t have to convince “people in New York, Texas or Kentucky” that the basic idea would go forward. “You can imagine it would be absolutely impossible.”
The real-time view was once again valuable. One in four pizzas sold at Pizza Hut is the durian variety. Last year alone, it sold 30 million cakes.
“Just watch it with your heart,” Wate concluded. “Some things you can observe directly from the customer and sometimes talking to the store manager helps.”
This discussion was presented by Insigniam. The leaders of the discussion were:
- Patrick Geraghty, GuideWell President and CEO
- Javier RodríguezCEO of DaVita
- Nathan Rosenberg, Creator, Insigniam; Partner, Elixrr
- Joey Wat, General Manager, Yum China
- Moderator: Matt HeimerExecutive Editor, Features, luck and co-president, Fortune Global Forum
