KFC will increase its investment budget by over 20% to 2.7 billion baht this year to expand business.
Waewkanee Assoratgoon, KFC country general manager at Yum Restaurants International (Thailand), said about two-thirds of the investment budget would come from Yum, which owns the KFC brand, and the balance from Central Restaurant Group, the KFC franchisee in Thailand.
Of the total budget, 1.7 billion baht will be earmarked to open 55 new outlets and renovate 20 existing branches nationwide. The total number of outlets will reach 586 by the end of the year.
Among the new branches, 15 will be drive-thru outlets.
Another 300 million baht will be allocated to install an IT system to speed up the ordering process, while 700 million baht will be spent on marketing.
The new service system will support both counter and home-delivery orders as well as increase productivity to cope with the rising number of customers, especially during rush hours.
Yum Thailand is also focusing on developing an e-commerce system that will support orders via computer, smartphone and tablet.
At the same time, the company hopes to expand its food ordering technology to fully support marketing activities and promotions from loyalty programmes, e-coupons and customer relationship management on mobile devices and takeaway orders.
Mrs Waewkanee said Yum Thailand would bring in digital marketing to encourage a new generation customers to place orders via the internet and mobile devices.
It will also develop new menus to increase customer visits to its stores and draw the younger generation, who like sharing their experiences with friends on social media.
With this plan, the company expects KFC sales to grow by 10% this year. However, Mrs Waewkanee did not disclose any sales figures.
Euro Monitor, a marketing research company, forecasts that Thailand's fast food restaurant market will grow by 9% to 34 billion baht this year.
Of the total, 17 billion baht will come from fried chicken, 7.4 billion baht from pizza deliveries and takeaways, 5.8 billion baht will come from burgers and 3.9 billion from full-service pizza restaurants.
Sales of KFC in Thailand saw 9% growth last year.
KFC's drive-thru outlets were a major sales driver last year because many motorists like to use this service for its convenience.