Burger King npd chief quits for top KFC role

John Prior, Burger King’s new product development director, has quit after only one month in the role to join KFC as marketing director for UK and Ireland.

Prior was promoted to the new post of npd director for European markets at the end of July, after more than two years as Burger King European marketing director.

He was replaced by Lorraine Thomson, who took Prior’s role after being global strategic marketing manager at Guinness, which is also owned by Diageo.

Prior replaces Martin Shuker, who was promoted to vice-president of marketing for KFC parent company Tricon Restaurants (TRI), Europe & Africa, in March.

Graham Allan, managing director of KFC UK, comments: “We have assembled a high performance team of marketing professionals and I look forward to John leading them to even greater success.”

Prior formerly worked for CPC as international marketing manager for Europe and has also had spells at Argyll Stores (Safeway) and Allied Lyons.

KFC has more than 400 outlets in the UK and Ireland, including 50 franchise operations.

The company plans to launch one restaurant a week over the next two years.