KFC

Tagline

Finger Lickin' Good!, Nobody does chicken like KFC, and So Good!

Net Worth

$5,100,000,000

Started in (City)

Salt Lake City

Started in (Country)

United States

Incorporation Date

20th December, 1930

Bankruptcy Date

Founders

Colonel Harland Sanders

About

KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside chicken restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Utah in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising to this day. However, the company’s rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964.

Beginning

Life for Colonel Sanders started in Indiana, where he was born on September 9, 1890, as Harland David Sanders. Sanders was born into a fairly modest family. His father was a farmer who worked at his farm at the time Sanders was born. With his father having passed away and his mother spent most of her days at work, little Sanders was left with the responsibility of looking after his younger brother and sisters. Because of this, he had to learn how to cook at a very young age. By the time other kids his age were learning how to ride a bicycle, Sanders was already an excellent cook. KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside chicken restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Utah in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising to this day. However, the company’s rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964.

Road to Success

While working at the Shell Oil Company, Sanders used to cook for his family in a back room, and to make ends meet, he started selling meals to interstate travellers who stopped at the station. The food he served at the station – which included pan-fried chicken, hot biscuits, ham, okra, string beans, and so on – was so delicious that word started spreading around that people could grab a terrific meal at Sander’s place. As his reputation as a cook spread, demand for his food grew, and he eventually decided to close the service station and set up a restaurant. It was about this time that Sanders was given the title of Colonel by Kentucky governor Ruby Lafoon. The popularity of Colonel Sanders’ restaurant grew so much that in 1939, Duncan, a food critic, visited the restaurant and listed it in the “Adventures in Good Eating”, his guide to restaurants across the country. With the restaurant, Colonel Sanders had another encounter with what could be termed as a success. At this time, the Colonel was still refining the secret recipe that made his chicken “finger lickin’ good.” This is the same recipe that is still used by KFC restaurants to this day. Today, KFC had sales of $23 billion in 2013. By December 2013, there were 18,875 KFC outlets in 118 countries and territories around the world. Average annual sales per unit were $1.2 million in 2013.

Challenges

While Sanders' recipe ensured the great-tasting chicken, Colonel Sanders still had a problem. He was yet to find an efficient and effective way of cooking the chicken. His restaurant had expanded significantly from when he started, and the old method of pan-frying his chicken was not fast enough. Customers were being forced to wait for over thirty minutes before their orders were ready. On the other hand, while the French-frying alternative was faster, it resulted in chicken that was crusty, dry, and unevenly done. This is not something he wanted to serve at his restaurant. In 1939, he stumbled upon a new cooking method that became a huge breakthrough for him. He started experimenting with a newly invented utensil known as a pressure cooker. After numerous experiments, he found the right balance of pressure and cooking time that sealed the chicken’s flavor and moisture and produced soft chicken that was neither crusty nor greasy. The best part was that the chicken would be ready in only eight minutes. With his secret recipe and his new method of cooking chicken, Colonel Sanders’ restaurant flourished for the next decade

Failures

Colonel Sanders went through several hardships, failures, and rejections before KFC became the multinational franchise that it is today. Right from the beginning, Sanders faced struggles in his life, from his father's death, his mother's absence, fending for himself and his siblings and getting fired from his job several times. He had the idea to deep-fry chicken with a very unique recipe that he nailed after countless tries and opened his first fried chicken store which became an instant hit. When Sanders tried to franchise his restaurant, it was rejected 1009 times before it was finally accepted and was renamed as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Achievements

KFC is the world's most popular chicken restaurant chain and is the second largest chicken chain globally after McDonald's
KFC was one of the first American fast-food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Jamaica by the mid-1960s

Subsidies

Thai KFC Co. Ltd. KFC
Kentucky Fried Chicken Of Statesboro, Georgia Inc

CEOs

Roger Eaton