Home Grown (Reading) Chicken
It’s Not Arthur’s…It’s Yours
This is probably a Michael Cain moment, in that “not a lot of people know that”.
I just thought I would take a minute to champion a local Reading business which stretches nationally and internationally.
I am talking about the brand Southern Fried Chicken.
Now we all like a bit of ‘dirty chicken’ now and again as my daughter calls it, but where does everyone head for such a wicked treat? To the Colonels of course, otherwise known as KFC.
With the UK economy as it stands at the moment I believe we need to support our UK based companies as much as possible.
Not so long ago I met Andrew Withers, CEO of Southern Fried Chicken who had a recent appearance on C4’s Undercover Boss. He is an absolutely charming man, who is exceedingly passionate about the quality of his product and the satisfaction of his customers.
You can read about the history of Southern Fried Chicken and local Reading boy Andrew who is now at the helm after taking over from his father, at www.southernfriedchicken.com
You can also watch the C4 episode here
Andrew Withers, boss of Southern Fried Chicken, goes undercover in his fast food franchise, and is shocked by what he discovers about the standards, staff, food and customers.
Southern Fried Chicken was started by Andrew’s father back in the 1960s and now has outlets across the UK. Andrew feels passionately that the SFC brand in the UK is in need of an overhaul, and feels himself at odds with the carefully constructed image he has spent years developing for the brand in 70 countries overseas. In the UK, SFC is associated with post-pub late night binge eats rather than seen as a family restaurant.
Andrew spends time behind the counter to find out why the company’s 200 UK franchises aren’t living up to his expectations. Can he get his business back on track?
So before you drive to a KFC to line the pocket of the US economy, check out to see if there’s a Southern Fried Chicken near you…you know it makes sense.
Oh and one last thing, enjoy watching a Southern Fried Chicken team build a huge SFC bucket in snowy Russia amongst all the snowmen.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUM61j88DZA]
(Southern Fried Chicken’s headquarters are based in Woodley and the Reading branch is 164, Whitley Wood Road.)
