[THE INVESTOR] Nearly eight fried chicken franchise restaurants closed down every day in Korea last year, Fair Trade Commission data showed on Feb. 24.



According to the FTC’s data on franchise restaurants, there were 106,890 franchise restaurants and coffee shops in Korea in 2016. Of these, 24,453 were fried chicken restaurants or roughly one fried chicken restaurant for every 2,000 residents of Korea.











Last year saw the opening of 3,980 fried chicken franchise restaurants, while 2,793 closed down. The figures are equal to about 11 openings and eight closures each day.By brand, BBQ Chicken franchise of Genesis BBQ Group was the most numerous with 1,381 restaurants across the country, followed by Pelicana Chicken with 1,225 stores.Kyochon stores had the largest average annual revenue with about 446 million won (US$395,000), followed by BBQ Chicken with 372 million won.By Choi He-suk ( cheesuk@heraldcorp.com