The top management of KFC has made its first public apology to consumers in China about a fake discount coupon incident.
Su Jingshi, the CEO of the Yum-owned KFC China division, said the counterfeit coupon incident was mainly the result of careless work by the company. Su admitted the incident had harmed consumers. He said that KFC will take this incident as a warning for future work.
On April 6, 2010, KFC launched e-coupons in major cities in China. Later the company announced that it was canceling the coupons after finding that the coupons were being printed from unauthorized websites. The company's action triggered widespread discontent in China.
On April 12, 2010, KFC posted a letter of apology saying that it did not handle the issue in a timely and proper way since it was not fully aware of online security issues. It promised then that it would offer other promotions for consumers at appropriate times.