KFC most favored fast food chain in Vietnam: survey

By Nguyen Quy August 30, 2020 | 05:08 pm PT

Customers at a KFC store in HCMC, 2019. Photo courtesy of KFC.

American chain KFC is the most frequently visited fast food restaurant chain in Vietnam, with 45 percent of respondents visiting its stores often, a new survey found.

It is followed by South Korea’s Lotteria with 17 percent of 600 respondents, and American restaurant chains Pizza Hut and McDonald's both at 6 percent, according to the survey by Ho Chi Minh City-based market research firm Q&Me.

Top reasons cited for favoring KFC were: delicious food (66 percent); convenient location (63 percent); suitable for family and the youth (60 percent); and variety on the menu (56 percent).

The survey found 87 percent ordering food online from fast food chains.

Of these, KFC was the most ordered from at 52 percent, followed by Lotteria (30 percent) and Pizza Hut (21 percent).

"Now" was the most popular delivery app for fast food online orders with 24 percent of the respondents opting for it, followed by GrabFood (20 percent).

In Vietnam since 1997, KFC now has 135 outlets, mainly in HCMC and Hanoi, Vietnam’s two biggest metropolises, while Lotteria has around 200.

Market research firm Euromonitor said in a recent report that international players dominate the limited-service restaurant market in Vietnam, since local independent chains are mostly small family-based businesses with insufficient resources to take on the big players.

But, as a whole, fast food chains are experiencing slower growth. Market observers have said one of the reasons could be that the eating habits of Vietnamese are changing, with health being prioritized over convenience.

In 2018, there were 7,000 fast food outlets in Vietnam, a relatively insignificant number considering there are around 540,000 food and beverage businesses comprised of 430,000 street vendors, 80,000 restaurants and 22,000 cafes and bars, according to Dcorp R- Keeper, a global company which provides technological solutions to food and beverage businesses.