KFC India offers meal box that doubles as mobile phone charger

KFC has offered consumers in India the chance to both refuel and recharge at the same time, with the development of new packaging for its meal boxes that doubles as a charging unit for mobile phones.

Cleverly titled Watt a Box, the new offering from the American fast food chain has been offered to a select number of consumers in its Mumbai and Delhi locations. In addition, consumers in India have been given the opportunity to win some of the limited-edition meal boxes through a competition on KFC India’s Facebook page.

The box, which has more than one type of charger port for different types of phone, advertises the chance for consumers to “charge your phone while experiencing finger lickin’ food”, and follows on from the development of KFC India’s 5-in-1 variety meal boxes early in the year.

KFC India chief marketing officer Lluis Ruiz Ribot was quoted as saying: “We launched the 5-in-1 Meal Box in March this year with the objective of providing an abundant, complete meal at an affordable price for our customers.

“With the launch of Watt a Box, we have gone a step ahead and also introduced an element of utility into the box. Each one of us spends a considerable time on our smartphones daily, and the phone battery going dead is almost like a nightmare! No longer is that the case, with the Watt a Box around.”

It remains unclear whether the Watt a Box could be rolled out across additional geographies, though KFC has a long history of innovating with its packaging.

In March, the company teamed up with packaging specialist International Paper Foodservice Europe to develop a new paperboard food bucket in the UK and Ireland that is completely free from plastic. And, last year, the chain also launched an edible coffee cup made out of biscuit, sugar paper and heat-resistant white chocolate.

Its latest move is similar to Pizza Hut’s innovative pizza box, launched last June, that can be transformed into a makeshift movie projector. The Blockbuster Box filmed movies directly from the consumers’ smartphone by scanning a QR code on the side of the box.