Rat Infested NYC Restaurants Caught on Video Face Reputations In Crisis

“We are embarrassed by the situation and stress that certain restaurants did not meet the very high standards that we set for ourselves.” Said ADF President Don Harty, trying to apologize to customers after viewing the video of his rat infested restaurant in NYC. ADF, a decade-old company, owns more than 350 fast-food restaurants in several states and is among the nation’s largest operators of Pizza Huts.

According to A.P., a major owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell franchises saw a majority of its New York City restaurants shut down Thursday as the fallout continued from a video showing rats overrunning one of its Manhattan eateries. The city’s health department revealed that three more restaurants owned by the ADF Cos., of Fairfield, N.J., were closed by inspectors this week because of unsanitary conditions. Two, both in Queens, were found to be infested with mice.

The new closures prompted swift action by fast-food giant Yum Brands Inc., parent of the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut chains. Late Wednesday it announced the pre-emptive closing of 10 additional New York restaurants operated by ADF. It said they would remain shuttered until city inspectors gave them a clean bill of health.

Shares of Yum Brands slid 84 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close at $57.10 on the New York Stock Exchange. ”We will not compromise on our food and restaurant quality,” Yum Brands executive Emil Brolick said in a written statement.

ADF President Don Harty apologized to customers for the problems. ”We are embarrassed by the situation and stress that certain restaurants did not meet the very high standards that we set for ourselves,” he said in a statement.

The decade-old company owns more than 350 fast-food restaurants in several states and is among the nation’s largest operators of Pizza Huts.

As of Thursday afternoon, eight of its 22 New York restaurants had passed an inspection and were allowed to remain open. ADF spokeswoman Marissa Smith said it was unclear how soon the others might reopen.

City inspectors put the company in their cross hairs last week, when a TV cameraman peering through the windows of a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village at 2:30 a.m. recorded a nauseating number of rats skittering across the floor and climbing on tables and countertops.

The video, which circulated on the Internet, also brought shame on the city for giving a passing grade to the eatery during an inspection just a day earlier. A follow-up inspection resulted in the restaurant’s immediate closure.

NYC Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said this week that the city’s failure to immediately shut the restaurant was unacceptable, and he removed the inspector who conducted the initial review from field duty. He also promised that other inspectors could expect a thorough analysis of their work.

Several restaurant owners complained they had been given excessively punitive inspections in the scandal’s wake.

“After what happened in Manhattan, now they are cracking down on every restaurant,” said Ted Vlamis, whose Vegas Diner in Brooklyn failed an inspection and was ordered closed by the Department of Health on Wednesday.

In 25 years of operation, Vlamis said, the restaurant had never been judged so harshly. This week’s inspection, he said, resulted in seven times as many violation points as the diner received in its last evaluation a year ago — all for minor infractions.

“Two weeks ago, we would have been fine,” Vlamis said. Health department spokeswoman Sara Markt denied that any special crackdown was ongoing. Currently, about 1 in 5 city restaurants fail their annual inspection. About 500 of the 60,000 restaurants score poorly enough for the city to order them closed at least temporarily.

Some of the city’s most famous restaurants have flunked a recent inspection, from the iconic Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to the Hello Deli on 53rd Street, famous for the appearances of proprietor Rupert Jee on CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman.” Over the past two fiscal years, inspectors have fined restaurants $38 million for code violations.

New York Restaurant Association Executive Vice President E. Charles Hunt said he worried that the media scrutiny of restaurants this week might make some inspectors overzealous.

“Human nature being what it is, there is probably a good possibly that some of the inspectors might go overboard,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen.”

A few comments from the Reputation Doctor regarding the NYC rats in restaurant crisis:

David C. Novak, CEO of Yum Brands, the world's largest restaurant holding company with brands like Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut

A humble apology is the only way to handle rats scampering around on tape within your restaurant.

When the world sees rats on tape in your restaurant, there is no denying it. Spin never works and it should not be used here. A humble apology is the best first step with no “ifs” or “buts” in your statement.

Be willing to invite TV news crews back at night after the problems have been permanently addressed to publicly record all the positive changes.

The visual of rats scampering around in a restaurant is difficult to remove from our minds, especially for current or former customers. The only way to win back customers for the long run is to turn your restaurant into the cleanest restaurant in NYC. Develop new cleaning policies and hold all employees accountable, including management. Also clog up all holes permanently so rats and mice never return and allow all of your changes to the restaurant to be transparent and communicated to customers through the media to win back trust.

Trying to isolate the problem to the local restaurant chain in NYC will not stop national reporters and restaurant analysts from questioning Yum Brands CEO David C. Novak about the rat infestation in NYC.

Yum Brands’ CEO needs to be very supportive of his local restaurant chains. The corporation needs to continue to communication that the rat infestation was unacceptable, but he also needs to offer the local restaurant help from the corporate level because both brands are in the crisis. Also don�t allow the legal department to lead the charge. This is a reputation crisis and seasoned public relations counselors are the experts in the court of public opinion and must lead. Yum Brands needs to openly, actively and transparently communicate how they are helping these troubled restaurants at the local level and give a weekly update on progress being made during the next 30 days or more in NYC.

Remember, do the right thing when your reputation is in crisis and seek the counsel of an experienced reputation management expert. It will be a major challenge, but ultimately the rewards of repairing your reputation will be great. Why? Because Your Reputation Is Everything!™

KFC, New York restaurants, Taco Bell

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