????中國消費者覺得被百勝（Yum Brands）出賣了。這個總部位于美國肯塔基州的快餐王國擁有肯德基（KFC）、必勝客（Pizza Hut）和塔可鐘（Taco Bell）等品牌。百勝大舉進入中國，因為透明、正直的西方餐飲公司形象而備受青睞。

????但在2012年底，中國食品調查人員發現，百勝的中國供應商往雞飼料中添加了超標的抗生素。5月6日，又一次公關危機擺在百勝的面前。當時有報道稱，中國監管機構開始調查一家可能與百勝旗下的火鍋連鎖店小肥羊（Little Sheep）有關的羊肉供應商。

????百勝CEO大衛?諾瓦克在該公司的2013年第一季度財報電話會議上說，抗生素事件影響巨大，百勝已經啟動了一個名為“雷霆行動”（Operation Thunder）的供應鏈評估計劃來解決這個問題。這家公司無力承受在中國面臨接連不斷的食品質量問題。

????“百勝無法繞開中國。10年來，兩位數的同店銷售增長已經成為這個市場的常態。”歐睿信息咨詢公司（Euromonitor）的消費者食品服務調研部門主管邁克爾?謝弗說。“我不認為他們可以糊弄了事。”

????百勝必須找到供應鏈問題的根源，在某種程度上是因為消費者對百勝雞肉問題的反應非常迅速和激烈。百勝中國的2013年第一季度營業利潤同比減少了41%，從2.58億美元下降到了1.54億美元。

????謝弗說，中國消費者飽受質量管理問題的困擾。“隨著收入的增加和生活水平的提高，人們開始意識到：‘我們為什么不能吃到安全的食物？為什么總是發生這種事情？’”他說，因此，當消費者覺得百勝在信息透明上出了問題時，“不僅僅是害怕，還有憤怒。”

????百勝CEO諾瓦克在財報電話會議上表示，他希望帶領公司在2014年底重回兩位數的增長軌道。他已經做好了準備。

????4月初，中國爆發禽流感，消費者談雞色變。這場恐慌雖然并沒有影響到熟食雞和百勝的操作實踐，但卻引發了心理反應，導致客戶望而卻步。結果現在又發生了羊肉事件。

????一旦企業擁有百勝在中國的那種影響力，這些問題就會成為企業的一部分。盡管存在各種風險，但百勝需要這個市場。那么到底應該怎么做呢？

????解決這個問題的部分困難在于，百勝在供應鏈管理方面長期擁有良好的聲譽。“百勝在華業務之所以表現優異，一個原因是在過去20年的大部分時間里，他們擁有一支非常強大的團隊，”謝弗說。“沒人真正覺得他們管理松懈。我現在都不認為有這種感覺存在。”

????another in China. How the company can bounce back.

????Chinese consumers feel a bit betrayed by Yum Brands -- the Kentucky-based quick-service king, owner of restaurants KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. Yum is huge in China and has benefited there for its reputation as a transparent, upstanding Western food company.

????But at the end of 2012, Chinese food investigators discovered that suppliers linked to Yum had fed their chicken more antibiotics than permitted. This past Monday, Yum (YUM) faced another PR disaster when reports suggested Chinese regulators started investigating a mutton supplier possibly tied to the company's hot pot franchise Little Sheep.

????The fallout from the antibiotics issue was immense, and Yum has launched a supply-chain assessment program called "Operation Thunder" to address it, CEO David Novak said during the company's 2013 first-quarter earnings call. The company can't afford a string of food quality problems in China.

????"There's no getting around it, this is a market where double-digit same-store sales increases were the norm for the past decade," says Euromonitor's head of consumer foodservice research Michael Schaefer. "I don't think this is something they're going to address with window dressing."

????Yum must get to the bottom of its supply chain issues, in part, because the consumer response to its chicken problems was so quick and violent. Yum's China division saw a 41% fall in operating profit in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same time the previous year -- from $258 million to $154 million.

????Chinese consumers are fed up with quality control issues, Schaefer says. "As people become wealthier, as living standards rise, you get this sense of, 'Why can't we have safe food? Why does this keep happening?'" So when consumers felt Yum had a transparency problem, he says, "It wasn't just fear, it was anger."

????At the earnings call, Yum CEO Novak says he expects to get the company back to its double-digit growth rate by the end of 2014. He has his work cut out for him.

????An avian bird flu scare broke out in early April, and while it doesn't affect cooked chicken or reflect on Yum's practices, it triggers an emotional response that drives customers away. And now mutton.

????When you have the strength Yum does in China, these problems become part of the business. Yum needs this market, despite the risks, so what to do?

????Part of the difficulty in solving the problem is that the company had a great reputation for supply-chain management for so long. "One of the reasons why Yum Brands has been doing so well in China is because, for the better part of 20 years, they've had a really strong team on the ground," Schaefer says. "No one really felt that they were playing fast and loose, and I still don't think there's that feeling."