- Yum! Brands said it had reached a deal to sell its 1,000 KFC stores in Russia.
- The new owners are Russian businesspeople who already hold KFC franchises.
The KFC brand is about to vanish in Russia as more than 1,000 stores rebrand as a local fast-food chain, The Moscow Times reported.
Yum! Brands is selling some of its KFC restaurants and franchises to Konstantin Kotov and Andrei Oskolkov's Smart Service, the US company said in a statement on Monday.
It said the buyers, who are already KFC franchisees, would be "responsible" for keeping the company's Russian employees and for rebranding the stores. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
"Following the completion of the transaction, Yum! Brands will have ceased its corporate presence in Russia," the company said.
In March, Yum! Brands announced plans to end operations in Russia following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Other fast-food chains announced their exits from Russia earlier this year. Starbucks said it was closing 130 stores in May, as did McDonald's, which sold its 850 stores to a local businessman who has reopened some under a new name.
Yum! Brands is selling 70 KFC restaurants in Russia to Smart Service, with the others remaining independently franchised, per The Moscow Times.
According to Russian business newspaper Kommerstant, Smart Service will be responsible for rebranding all 1,000 stores as Rostic's.
Last month Yum Restaurants Russia LLC registered rights to the Rostic's brand, Kommerstant reported, and the KFC stores will begin rebranding in early 2023.
The Venezuelan migrant Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Blanco, nicknamed Rostik, founded Rostic's, and its first store opened in Moscow in 1993, according to local media outlet Business District. It rivaled American fast-food stores until 2006, per the report.
Yum! Brands did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.