– **History**
– Harland Sanders was born in 1890 and raised on a farm outside Henryville, Indiana.
– His father’s death at age five led him to care for his younger siblings.
– Sanders learned cooking from his mother at age seven.
– In 1930, Sanders took over a Shell filling station in North Corbin, Kentucky.
– By 1936, he earned the title of Kentucky Colonel for his successful restaurant.
– **Sanders Court & Café**
– Sanders started serving recipes at his filling station in Kentucky.
– He expanded the business to a larger location with more seating.
– Sanders was unsatisfied with the time it took to cook chicken until he invented a pressure fryer.
– The pressure fryer improved production time and chicken quality.
– Sanders’s Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices was finalized in 1940.
– **Original Recipe and Franchising**
– Sanders franchised his recipe to Pete Harman in 1952.
– Independent restaurants paid a franchise fee to use Sanders’s recipe and likeness.
– The name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” and the slogan “Its finger lickin good” were coined.
– The introduction of the bucket meal in 1957 was a success.
– Sanders dressed as the Colonel and grew a goatee to embody the brand.
– **Expansion and Ownership Changes**
– KFC expanded internationally in the 1960s.
– Ownership changes led to KFC being owned by PepsiCo.
– KFC was the first Western chain to open in China in 1987.
– The company has rapidly expanded in China, its largest market.
– PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division, which later became Yum! Brands.
– **Menu and Slogans**
– KFC’s original product is pressure-fried chicken with Sanders’s secret recipe.
– The menu expanded to include chicken sandwiches, wraps, salads, and side dishes.
– KFC is known for slogans like “Its Finger Lickin Good!” and “So good.”
– Larger portions of chicken are served in the iconic cardboard bucket.
– KFC’s menu often includes PepsiCo soft drinks.
KFC (also commonly referred to by its historical name Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 22,621 locations globally in 150 countries as of December 2019[update]. The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Fast food restaurant |
| Founded |
|
| Founder | |
| Headquarters | 1441 Gardiner Lane Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. Dallas, Texas, U.S. (global) |
Number of locations | 24,104 (2020) |
Key people | |
| Products | |
| Revenue | US$2.83 billion (2023) |
| Parent | Yum! Brands |
| Website | kfc |
KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside 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 Salt Lake City, 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.
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. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it experienced mixed fortunes domestically, as it went through a series of changes in corporate ownership with little or no experience in the restaurant business. In the early 1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits distributor Heublein, which was taken over by the R. J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate; that company sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain continued to expand overseas, however, and in 1987 it became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China. It has since expanded rapidly in China, which is now the company's single largest market. PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants, which later changed its name to Yum! Brands.
KFC's original product is pressure-fried chicken pieces, seasoned with Sanders' signature recipe of "11 herbs and spices". The constituents of the recipe are a trade secret. Larger portions of fried chicken are served in a cardboard "bucket", which has become a feature of the chain since it was first introduced by franchisee Pete Harman in 1957. Since the early 1990s, KFC has expanded its menu to offer other chicken products such as chicken fillet sandwiches and wraps, as well as salads and side dishes such as French fries and coleslaw, desserts and soft drinks; the latter often supplied by PepsiCo. KFC is known for its slogans "It's Finger Lickin' Good!", "Nobody does chicken like KFC" and "So good".