That is the question the local community is asking after Facebook posts about recruitment for a Deniliquin KFC store surfaced this week.
A profile calling itself ‘KFC Deniliquin’ had community members licking their lips with excitement when it went out to Facebook earlier this week.
In one post on the profile was a photo of a modern KFC restaurant with a ‘coming soon’ banner out the front.
A post was also left on a Deniliquin buy, swap and sell Facebook page by the profile suggesting a store would be opening on May 1, and that recruitment of management and staff had started.
Both posts garnered plenty of likes, comments and shares, but is someone pulling a fast one?
From what the Pastoral Times has been able to determine so far, apparently so.
KFC Australia’s recruitment website shows no employment vacancies using a postcode search for 2710.
It also seems the KFC Deniliquin profile has disappeared from Facebook since news of this apparent reopening has spread across the district, as has the recruitment post.
The Pastoral Times has reached out to KFC Australia for official confirmation, but did not hear back before going to print.
This is not the first time the fast food company has had to address desires for a Deniliquin store opening.
An online petition through change.org was launched in 2018, in attempt to encourage the company to return to our home town.
KFC Australia responded at the time saying it has “no current plans for a new restaurant in Deniliquin’’.
The petition highlighted that the town’s appetite for the fast food has not disappeared since the Deniliquin KFC store’s closure in 2010, stating that locals have made countless trips to the closest store in Echuca.
The response to this week’s social media posts suggest that appetite is as strong as ever.
KFC was first opened in Deniliquin in 1992 and operated by David and Marie Bird from the Bird Group, with the local store being the couple’s first KFC franchise.
However after 18 years of trading, it closed in December 2010.
Store owner David Bird said at the time the business had been ‘‘unviable for about 10 years’’, that he could no longer ‘‘prop up’’ the local franchise, and could not justify keeping it open any longer.
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