THERE is still no joy for lovers of the Colonel’s fried chicken in Dorset this evening.

The county’s various branches of US fast food giant KFC remained closed, as they have been since Saturday.

This afternoon the firm tweeted: “Good news, over half of our restaurants are now back open! Our teams are working flat out to open the rest. Equilibrium will soon be restored.”

The bulk of the fried chicken giant's 900 branches failed to open on Saturday due to a shortage of chicken, which the chain attributed to "teething problems" with a new distributor.

"We've brought a new delivery partner onboard, but they've had a couple of teething problems - getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex!" KFC said.

"We won't compromise on quality, so no deliveries has meant some of our restaurants are closed and others are operating a limited menu, or shortened hours.

"We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days, and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix - we're really sorry about that."

KFC was previously a client of Bidvest Logistics but has since swapped contract to enlist DHL for food deliveries.

New distributor DHL said: "Due to operational issues a number of deliveries in recent days have been incomplete or delayed.

"We are working with KFC and our partners to rectify the situation as a priority and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused."

DHL announced in November that it had been appointed alongside QSL to manage the supply and distribution of food products and packaging for more than 850 KFC restaurants throughout the UK.

It said DHL would manage the physical warehouse and distribution service, with KFC adding it had specifically chosen the pair for their reputation of "innovation in logistics" across other industries.