KFC to use APT's data analytics in bid to drive profit and improve customer satisfaction

"APT enables us to accurately measure the 'halo' and 'cannibalisation' effect of new product introductions," says KFC's commercial director

Fast food giant KFC UK and Ireland has signed an agreement to license Applied Predictive Technologies' data analytics software in a bid to drive profit and increase customer satisfaction.

The company already uses APT's Test & Learn for Customers software, but will now also use APT's Test & Learn for Sites product, joining other high-profile fast-food chains, including Pizza Hut, Costa, Subway, Starbucks, Wendy's and Dunkin Donuts, that also use the cloud-based software.

KFC has been using APT's software with the aim of finding out how customers are responding to a revamp of the firm's restaurants and to new products.

"APT enables us to clearly understand the cause-and-effect relationship between our business initiatives and outcomes," said Paula MacKenzie, chief finance and development officer at KFC.

"We now have a deep understanding of how remodelling a restaurant affects our customers and helps to grow our sales," she explained.

MacKenzie said that APT helped KFC to make its "business experiments" more accurate, efficient and process driven.

"We are already in the process of designing new tests using APT's software and are looking forward to analysing many other high-value initiatives," she added.

Chris Holmes, KFC's commercial director, said that previously it had been difficult for KFC to determine whether a specific product was having an impact on sales.

"APT enables us accurately to measure the 'halo' and 'cannibalisation' effect of new product introductions, manage menu complexity, and by doing so, ensure that the items we introduce not only drive profitability but also increase guest satisfaction," he claimed.

Earlier this year, MasterCard entered into an agreement to acquire APT for $600m (£388m). Along with restaurant chains, the firm counts the likes of Coca-Cola, Boots, Walmart, and clothes firm Abercrombie & Fitch as its customers.

Back in 2013, the founder of the company, Jim Manzi, told Computing that predictive analytics helped firms to get "about three per cent better at guessing" what a consumer would like to buy.

In the same year, the company received a $100m investment from the merchant banking division of Goldman Sachs, in a deal that APT described at the time as the largest investment in predictive analytics to date.