Louisville, Kentucky-based KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), or PFK (Poulet Frit Kentucky) in Quebec, Canada, is an American fast food business that specialises in chicken. Second only to McDonald’s, it has 22,621 locations worldwide in 150 countries as of Dec. 2019, making it the second-largest restaurant chain worldwide. Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and WingStreet, owns the business.
During the Great Depression, Colonel Harland Sanders started selling fried chicken out of a roadside stand in Corbin, Kentucky. When Sanders saw the potential of the restaurant franchising model, he set up shop in Utah in 1952 with the first “Kentucky Fried Chicken” location. It was KFC that introduced chicken to the fast-food sector, threatening the hamburger’s long-held supremacy. Harland became a cultural icon in the United States after adopting the alias “Colonel Sanders,” and his likeness is still utilised in KFC advertisements to this day. In 1964, Sanders sold the firm to a group of investors headed by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey, whose fast development overwhelmed the aged Sanders.
In the mid-1960s, KFC became one of the first U.S. fast food franchises to go global, establishing locations in Canada, the U.K., Mexico, and Jamaica. With a succession of corporate owners that had little or no expertise in the restaurant sector, it had mixed results domestically during the 1970s and 1980s. Heublein, a liquor distributor, bought KFC in the early 1970s, then R. J. Reynolds, a food and tobacco giant, bought it back; PepsiCo bought it again from Reynolds in 1982. As a result of this, it became the first Western restaurant chain to operate in China in 1987, making it the first Western chain to start in China. Since then, the firm has grown tremendously in China, which is now its single biggest market. Originally called Tricon Global Restaurants, Yum! Brands was renamed when PepsiCo’s restaurants subsidiary was split off.
Chicken pieces seasoned with the 11 herbs and spices created by KFC’s founder, Colonel Sanders, are the original KFC product. All of the ingredients are kept under lock and key. In 1957, franchisee Pete Harman created a cardboard “bucket” for fried chicken, which has since become a trademark of the brand. Chicken fillet sandwiches and wraps as well as salads and side dishes such French fries and coleslaw, as well as dessert and soft beverages, frequently provided by PepsiCo have been added to the KFC menu from early 1990s. “It’s Finger Lickin’ Delicious!”, “Nobody does chicken like KFC” and “So good” are just few of the KFC catchphrases.
| Drinks | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain Dew Sweet Lighting | $ 3.23 | $ 3.59 |
| Pepsi | $ 3.23 | $ 3.59 |
| Diet Pepsi | $ 3.23 | $ 3.59 |
| Mountain Dew | $ 3.23 | $ 3.59 |
| Sierra Mist | $ 3.23 | $ 3.59 |
| Iced Tea | $ 3.23 | $ 3.59 |
| Classic Lemonade | $ 3.59 | $ 3.95 |
“Original Recipe” and franchising
In July 1940, Sanders completed the “Original Recipe” with 11 herbs and spices. The only ingredients he mentioned were salt and pepper, and the rest “stand on everyone’s shelf,” but he never divulged what they were. [18] The Colonel’s goatee, black suit, and string tie became his trademark when he was recommissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby. Sanders started referring to himself as “the Colonel” and began dressing accordingly. According to Josh Ozersky, Ozersky’s biographer, “jokingly at first and then in serious,” Ozersky’s companions agreed to the name change.
It wasn’t until 1952, when Sanders gave his recipe to a buddy who had a restaurant in South Salt Lake, Utah, that he began franchising the business.
Corbin was left out of Interstate 75’s planned alignment in 1955, therefore the Sanders Court & Café was sold and Sanders began franchising his recipe throughout the United States.
To get Sanders’ recipe and utilise his name and image for advertising reasons, independent eateries had to pay a franchise fee of four cents on each chicken.
The moniker “Kentucky Fried Chicken” was invented by Harman’s sign painter, Don Anderson. Adding KFC to his restaurant was a method for Harman to differentiate himself; a product from Kentucky was unusual and conjured images of southern hospitality. “It’s finger lickin’ good” became the business slogan when Harman trademarked it. Also in 1957, he came up with the “bucket supper” (14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy in a cardboard bucket). The company’s main meal was served in a paper bucket, which became a trademark of the brand.
In 1963, KFC had 600 locations, making it the biggest fast food chain in the country.
KFC introduced fast food consumers to chicken, so broadening the market and upending the burger’s hegemony.