KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is a fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, which specializes

in fried chicken. An "American icon", it is the world's second largest restaurant chain overall (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with over 18,000 outlets in 120 countries and territories as of December 2012. [4][2] The company is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. KFC was founded by Harland Sanders, who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky during the Great Depression. Sanders was one of the first people to see the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, with the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opening in Utah in 1952. The franchise popularized chicken in the fast food industry, thereby diversifying the market and challenging the dominance of the hamburger.[6] Marketing himself as "Colonel Sanders", he became a legendary figure of American cultural history, and his image is still prominently used in KFC branding. [6] The company's rapid expansion saw it grow too large for Sanders to manage, and in 1964 he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack Massey. KFC was one of the first fast food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in England, Mexico and Puerto Rico by the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, KFC experienced mixed fortunes domestically, as it went through a series of corporate owners who had little or no experience in the restaurant business. In the early 1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits firm Heublein, who were taken over by the R.J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate, who sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain continued to expand overseas however, and in 1987 KFC became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China. The chain has since expanded rapidly in China, and the country is now the company's most profitable market. PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants, which later changed its name to Yum! Brands. KFC primarily sells fried chicken pieces and variations such as chicken sandwiches and wraps, salads and side dishes such as French fries and coleslaw, desserts and soft drinks, often supplied by PepsiCo. Its most famous product is pressure fried chicken pieces, seasoned with Sanders' "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices. The exact nature of these ingredients is unknown, and represents a notable trade secret. Larger portions of fried chicken are served in a distinctive cardboard "bucket", which has become a signature of the chain since being introduced by franchisee Pete Harman. KFC is famous for the slogan "finger lickin' good", which has since been replaced by "Nobody does chicken like KFC" and "So good". Origin See also: Colonel Sanders The Harland Sanders Caf and Museum Harland Sanders was born in 1890 and raised on a farm outside Henryville, Indiana.[7] His father died when he was five years old, forcing his mother to work at a canning plant, and leaving her eldest son to care for his two younger siblings. [8] From the age of seven, his mother taught him how to cook.[7] After leaving the family home at the age of 12, Sanders passed through several professions, with mixed success.[9] In 1930, he took over a Shell filling station on U.S. Route 25

just outside North Corbin, a small city on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains.[10] It was here that he first served to travellers the recipes that he had learned as a boy: fried chicken and other dishes such as steaks, country ham, and pancakes.[8] Originally using his own dining room table, in 1934, he purchased the larger filling station across the street and expanded to six tables. [11] By 1936, this had proved successful enough for Sanders to be given the honorary title of Kentucky colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon.[8] The following year he expanded his restaurant to 142 seats, and added a motel he purchased across the street, naming it Sanders Court & Caf.[12] Sanders was dissatisfied with the 30-minute duration it took to prepare his chicken in an iron frying pan, but he refused to sacrifice quality by deep frying the product.[8] In 1939, the first commercial pressure cookers were released onto the market, predominantly designed for steaming vegetables.[8] Sanders bought one, and modified it into a pressure fryer, which he then used to fry chicken.[13] As well as production-time-reducing to be comparable with deep frying, the new method produced flakier, moister chicken.[12] In 1940, he finalised what came to be known as his Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices. [14] Sanders admitted to the use of salt and pepper in the recipe, and claimed that the ingredients used "stand on everybody's shelf". [15] After being recommissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee and wearing a black frock coat (later switched to a white suit), a string tie, and referring to himself as "Colonel". [15] His associates went along with the title change, "jokingly at first and then in earnest", according to biographer Josh Ozersky.[16] Franchising The Sanders Court & Caf generally served travelers, so when the route planned in 1955 for Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, Sanders sold his properties and traveled the U.S. to market his chicken concept to restaurant owners.[9] Independent restaurants would pay four to five cents on each chicken as a franchise fee, in exchange for Sanders' "secret blend of herbs and spices" and the right to feature his recipe on their menus and use his name and likeness for promotional purposes.[17] In 1952 he had already successfully franchised his chicken recipe to his friend Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of that city's largest restaurants. [18] In the first year of selling the product, restaurant sales more than tripled, with 75 per cent of the increase coming from sales of fried chicken. [19] For Harman, the addition of fried chicken was a way of differentiating his restaurant from competitors; a product hailing from Kentucky was exotic, and evoked imagery of Southern hospitality.[20] Don Anderson, a sign painter hired by Harman, coined the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken".[20] As a franchise-led operation, the work of the early franchisees was important to KFC's success, and Pete Harman has been described as the "virtual co-founder" of the chain.[21] Harman trademarked the phrase that would become the company's slogan, "It's finger lickin' good". [17] It was Harman who in 1957 first bundled 14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy in a cardboard bucket to offer families "a complete meal" for $3.50 ($29 in 2013 dollars). [20][22] He adopted the buckets as a favor to Sanders, who had called on behalf of a Denver franchisee who didn't know what to do with the 500 buckets he had bought from a traveling salesman. [20] The take-out concept grew as Americans became more prosperous: choosing to buy meals outside the home more frequently, and was complimented by the growing television culture. [23]

Also, women increasingly had less time to prepare meals at home, as more joined the workforce. [24] In 1963, Pete Harman's restaurant training manual and product guide was adopted across the entire company.[25] Dave Thomas was a franchisee from the mid-1950s, and he developed the rotating bucket sign that came to be used at many KFC locations. [26] Thomas reported that Sanders' fried chicken was a "sensation" from the first day he offered it, with queues lining outside his restaurant door. [27] He was an early advocate of the take-out concept that Pete Harman had pioneered, and introduced a bookkeeping form that Sanders rolled out across the entire KFC chain. [17][28] Thomas sold his shares in 1968 for $1 million, and became regional manager for all KFC restaurants East of the Mississippi before founding the Wendy's restaurant chain in 1969.[26][29] Sale by Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken logo used between 1952 and 1978 By 1960 the company had some 200 franchised restaurants; by 1963 this had grown to around 600, making it the largest fast food operation in the United States. [9] In 1963, Sanders met John Y. Brown, Jr, the son of his lawyer, at a political breakfast.[30] Brown told Sanders that he was keen to join the company, which had developed a strong reputation. [8] Brown claims that Sanders had lost interest in the business operations of KFC, and persuaded him to buy the company. [30] Brown and franchisee Dave Thomas said that Sanders "wasn't a very good businessman". [31][32] Jack C. Massey would be majority shareholder, with a major contribution from Brown, and smaller contributions from Pete Harman, and company officials Lee Cummings and Harlan Adams.[33] Sanders refused to sell the company until a number of franchisees were on board as investors, because he wanted to see the company run in the franchisee's interests. [8] Sanders saw a number of useful qualities in Brown, such as youth, enthusiasm and vision. [8] They acquired the company from Sanders in 1964 for $2 million ($14,804,721 in 2013 dollars). [34] The sale included a lifetime salary for Sanders and the agreement that he would be the company's quality controller and trademark.[35] According to Massey, when the offer was first touted it was difficult to know how Sanders felt about the deal: he would alternately dismiss it and ask as if it was inevitable.[36] He knew that Sanders placed faith in astrology, and waited until Sanders had a particularly positive and dramatic horoscope before making a definitive offer.[36] When Massey made the written offer, Sanders looked at the figure, opened up his office drawer, read his horoscope, and agreed to sell.[36] Massey and Brown quickly set about standardizing the fragmented company.[37] After visiting Pete Harman's operations in Utah, they began to roll out the stand-alone take out model across the entire chain.[38] Franchisees were ordered to delist their own menu items in order to concentrate on KFC products.[39] The restaurants were re-branded with a distinctive red-andwhite striped color pattern, cupola roofs and the company expanded to 1,500 restaurants in all 50 U.S. states, with several locations overseas.[40] Freestanding stores led to a faster growth rate for the chain because specialized operations of this kind proved easier to sell to would-be franchisees.[17] Sanders did not approve of all of the changes to the company however, becoming incensed when company headquarters were moved out of Kentucky and into Nashville, Tennessee.[41] Sanders bellowed, "This ain't no goddam Tennessee Fried Chicken, no matter what

some slick, silk-suited sonofabitch says".[41] Brown did not like the idea either, but Massey owned 60 per cent of the company and wanted company headquarters to be near his home. [41] Sanders also became frustrated regarding a number of changes to the company, such as introducing an initial franchisee fee of $4,000, and charging franchisees a percentage of total sales rather than a nickel per chicken sold.[8] The company also reneged on their contract with Sanders, which he believed had granted him the exclusive rights to the company's Canadian business, by opening their own operations there.[8] Sanders told The Washington Post, "I don't like some of the things John Y. done to me. Let the record speak for itself. He over-persuaded me to get out".[42] Brown argued that he brought order and efficiency to a chaotic management structure, and treated the increasingly disgruntled Sanders with tact and patience.[41] The company had ignored Sanders, but was forced to renegotiate with him regarding the Canadian activities, as he owned $1.5 million worth of stock, and was using it to prevent Massey from listing the company publicly until his qualms were met.[8] Brown and Massey claimed that Sanders only had the rights to process chicken in Canada. [8] After they renegotiated the contract to guarantee Sanders exclusive rights over Canada, he sold his stock to them, and the company went public in 1966.[8] Later that year Massey resigned from day to day management of the company and Brown announced that headquarters would be moved to Louisville, Kentucky.[41] Massey left the venture with a "sour taste in his mouth", and refused to discuss the former partnership publicly.[42] By 1967, KFC had become the sixth largest restaurant chain in the U.S. by sales volume, and 30 percent of sales were takeout. [39][40] By 1968, Kentucky Fried Chicken was the largest fast food business in America and in 1969 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.[36] The company's amazing growth pushed its stock value to "stratospheric" levels, according to Reuters.[43] Massey resigned as chairman of the company in March 1970, and Brown took over his role.[44] The chain had reached 3,000 outlets in 48 different countries by 1970, but expansion was often chaotic and poorly executed. [39] Regional manager Dave Thomas complained that the company had become too "corporate", sent him "a lot of Mickey Mouse memos" and that Brown lacked motivational skill.[45] KFC management described the international strategy as "throwing some mud against the map on the wall, and hoping some of it would stick."[46] The first Asian outlet was opened in Japan after just two weeks preparation, and was a massive failure, losing $400,000 and throwing away more chicken than it sold.[46] Meanwhile, KFC entered into ventures with other companies. In 1969, KFC entered a joint venture with the California-based fish and chips chain H. Salt Esquire, which was sold off in 1980 as part of a chain-wide decision to focus mainly on the KFC branding. [47][48] KFC also purchased the Mexican chain Zapata in 1974, renaming it Zantigo in 1976.[49] Following the sale of KFC to PepsiCo in 1986, the Zantigo stores were closed or converted to Taco Bell. [50] In 1969, Brown launched the "Kentucky Roast Beef" restaurant chain, and "Colonel Sanders Inns" motels.[51] Brown believed that the Colonel Sanders brand could be used to market anything, but these two ventures quickly failed.[16]