Meg Farren returns to KFC as general manager

KFC UK and Ireland has announced that Meg Farren will be returning to the company in the role of general manager.

She will replace Paula MacKenzie, who recently left the business after five years to take over as chief executive at PizzaExpress.

Farren worked at the restaurant chain for 10 years, joining as innovation director in 2011 and working as chief marketing officer from 2015 to 2021.

She was responsible for the full-page apology advert KFC took out in national newspapers after temporarily running out of chicken in 2018, which featured an empty bucket with the logo’s letters switched to read ‘FCK’.

Farren will return to the company this autumn from a position as chief customer officer at supermarket chain Asda.

Neil Piper, who is acting as interim general manager in the interim, said: “I couldn't be more excited to welcome Meg back to Team KFC, she is a phenomenal leader, someone who understands and cares deeply about our brand, what it takes to win, and epitomizes our culture.”

Earlier this year KFC revealed plans to launch a further 300 sites over the next five years. It works with 33 different franchisees in the UK and Ireland, which have made both countries one of the restaurant chain's fastest growing markets outside China and the United States.