Workers protest outside a KFC restaurant. Credit: Wikipedia
KFC has closed all 537 of its branches in Türkiye, after local franchise operator Iş Gıda went bust. It’s one of the biggest business exits the country’s seen in years, leaving over 7,000 workers in limbo and dealing another blow to an already fragile economy.
The trouble started in January when Yum! Brands, the American parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut, cancelled its deal with Iş Gıda. According to Yum!, the Turkish firm simply wasn’t keeping up with the standards required by the franchise agreement.
A Turkish court has given Iş Gıda a temporary three-month window to sort out its finances. In that time, they’ll need to talk to creditors and try to protect what’s left of the company—and look after the workers who’ve been left hanging. But as it stands, the future of KFC and Pizza Hut in Türkiye is anyone’s guess. Yum! hasn’t said who, if anyone, might take over the business there.
Former staff are already speaking out. Abdurrahim Seven, who managed a KFC branch, said:
“We worked through January and February with no idea what was coming—then we were sacked with no explanation, no wages, no severance. We’re not the ones who caused this mess, so why should we pay for it?”
The collapse also comes as many Turks have been boycotting Western brands linked to the US, with KFC and Pizza Hut high on the list. Add to that soaring inflation and a crashing lira, and it’s easy to see why Iş Gıda struggled to stay afloat.
The closures—283 KFCs and 254 Pizza Huts—will be especially felt in smaller towns, where they provided steady jobs and were a rare international food option. Experts warn that this could spook other foreign companies and make investors even warier of Türkiye’s unpredictable economy.
Yum! Brands, meanwhile, says it hopes to reopen “as many restaurants as possible” at some point. It also revealed that it had recently bought back the rights to operate in Germany from Iş Gıda, a deal which, together with the Turkish shutdown, will cost the company about 55 million euros in late 2024.
Still, Yum! isn’t too worried. They admitted Turkish sales were way below the global average, so the hit to their profits in 2025 is expected to be minor.
Iş Gıda, a family-owned firm based in Istanbul, has worked in logistics, construction, and manufacturing—but KFC became its main business in 2020, and Pizza Hut followed in 2022. Now, with both gone, the company’s future looks more uncertain than ever.
