KFC Versus Ronghuaji

We all know about KFC. So what is Ronghuaji? Well, it was supposed to be the Chinese equivalent to KFC.

Apparently in the early 1990s, the Ministry of Internal Trade issued guidelines and produced a national development plan for the fast food industry, earmarking seed funds and supporting, amongst others, the Ronghuaji (荣华鸡), or Glorious China Chicken Company as a competitor to KFC.

But it soon became clear that Ronghuaji was no competition at all.

One Ronghuaji executive said in 1997: "We are a six-year old child in the business and KFC is a sixty-year old veteran. KFC has reached levels of capitalism that we cannot match."

Ronghuaji also failed to match KFC in terms of management, cleanliness, efficiency and above all, in consistency. By the turn of the century, it was struggling to keep a dozen outlets going.