October 24 (SeeNews) - Romania's Sphera Franchise Group [BSE:SFG], the franchisee of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands in Romania, said on Thursday that it has launched an internal investigation into the issues discovered at its KFC restaurants during a recent check by the consumers protection body and is taking actions to address them.
The National Agency for Consumers' Protection (ANPC) has found two issues - bacteria found in a limited number of ice dispensing machines, on one hand, and the use of allegedly unauthorized drink dispenser machines and ice producing machines, on the other, Sphera Franchise Group said in a bourse filing.
Until the internal investigation concludes, the company has decided to cease the operation of all ice-dispensing machines and the use of ice across all its KFC restaurants.
In addition, the company will now serve only bottled soft drinks in all of its KFC restaurants.
Sphera Franchise Group shares traded at 20.4 lei ($4.78/4.29 euro) as at 8:40 CET on Thursday, unchanged from their previous closing price on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro = 4.7546 lei)