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KFC history
KFC company history timeline
Kentucky Fried Chicken, known today as KFC, was incorporated in 1955 by Col.
The Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, so when the route planned in 1955 for Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, Sanders sold his properties and traveled the US to franchise his recipe to restaurant owners.
When he finally sold the Corbin store in 1956, Sanders, rather than living on his meager savings and Social Security, drove across the country giving samples of his chicken and demonstrations of his cooking methods.
In 1957 Pete Harman, the owner of the first KFC franchised store, purchased the buckets from another owner who had bought them off of a traveling salesman and was unsure what to do with them.
He also introduced the "bucket meal" in 1957 (14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy in a cardboard bucket). Serving their signature meal in a paper bucket was to become an iconic feature of the company.
By 1963 there were 600 KFC restaurants, making the company the largest fast food operation in the United States.
He signed his first franchise agreement with a restaurant in Utah and by 1963, there were 600 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises across the US.
In 1966, for instance, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertising Co-op was established, giving franchisees ten votes and the company three when determining advertising budgets and campaigns.
In 1967, franchising remained the foundation of the business.
Kentucky Fried Chicken stock hit a high of $55.50 in 1969—then fell to as low as $10 per share within a year.
CEO Brown spent the rough year of 1970 shoring up his company’s base of operations.
In 1971, Brown sold KFC to Heublein, a food packaging and drinks company, for $285 million.
The popularity of barbecued spare ribs, introduced in 1975, kept the numbers for Kentucky Fried Chicken looking better than they really were.
In 1977 Heublein decided to remake the company.
The National Purchasing Co-op, formed in 1979, ensured franchisees a cut of intercompany equipment and supply sales.
Reasons cited were KFC’s superior performance and its 1980-85 increase in worldwide revenue and earnings.
In 1982, Heublein was acquired by R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco giant.
By late 1986 Donald E. Doyle, succeeding Mayer in the post of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s United States president, inherited the task of developing new menu items.
After opening that first Chinese fast food shop in 1987 — the very first fast food restaurant to enter China — it has gone on to invest in local brands like Little Sheep.
Prewitt, Milford, “Mayer Flies KFC Coop; PepsiCo Names Cranor,” Nation’s Restaurant News, July 31, 1989.
In July 1989, CEO and Chairman Richard Mayer resigned to return as president to General Foods USA, where he had begun his career nearly thirty years earlier in sales and product management.
In August 1989 franchisees had established a $3.6 million legal fund, averaging $1,000 per unit, to fight the battle in court if necessary.
Martin, Richard, “Collins to Sell 209 KFC Units to PepsiCo for $123 Million,” Nation’s Restaurant News, September 24, 1990.
Hot Wings, brought out in 1990, were KFC’s only hit in a number of attempts, including broiled, oven-roasted, skinless, and sandwich-style chicken.
Despite contract battles and communication troubles, in the fall of 1990 Kentucky Fried Chicken called a one-day truce to celebrate in honor of Colonel Sanders’s 100th birthday.
“‘Corporate’ Meets the Colonel in KFC’s Entrepreneurial Cranor,” Nation’s Restaurant News, November 18, 1991.
Up until 1991, the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” was spelled out in the company’s logo.
In 1992 pre-tax profits were $92 million from international operations, as opposed to $86 million from the United States units.
Tanzer, Andrew, “Hot Wings Take Off,” Forbes, January 18, 1993, p.74.
In 1993, sales and profits of KFC outlets in Asia were growing at 30 percent a year.
In 1995, KFC expanded the idea to “Mega-Meal-for-One,” and decided to test chicken pot pie and chicken salad.
To continue capitalizing on their success abroad, KFC undertook an aggressive construction plan—an average of one non-United States unit is built per day, and it is expected that by 1995 the number of international units will exceed those in the United States
In 1996 the company prepared to rid itself of its restaurant division by drawing together Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC. All operations were now overseen by a single senior manager, and most back office operations, including payroll, data processing, and accounts payable, were combined.
In 1996 KFC began the "KFCares Neighborhood Partners Program." Each of the 25 KFC restaurants in Louisville received $1,000 to donate to a community project, chosen from proposals submitted by local residents.
"Tricon Global Restaurants." Standard and Poor's Stock Report, 21 February 1998.
Boston Market, which had been a strong competitor only a few years earlier, was in bankruptcy in 1999.
In 1999, the chain had domestic sales of $3.2 billion, which was almost equivalent to the combined sales of its top four competitors.
By 2001, Kentucky Fried Chicken was the most recognized foreign brand in China, where the company had 500 restaurants.
Tricon was renamed Yum! Brands in May 2002.
While total sales reached $4.8 billion in 2002 and KFC controlled some 46 percent of the United States fast-food chicken market, the brand was still seen as troubled.
KFC significantly outsold McDonald’s in China, and by 2006, KFC was opening a new Chinese outlet every 22 hours.
In the second quarter of 2006, KFC introduced its variation on Shepherd’s pie called the Famous Bowl.
In the United States, KFC began offering the Fish Snacker sandwich during Lent in 2006.
Introduced in April 2009.
The company was incorporated in 2009 for the purpose of owning and operating KFC restaurants in agreement with Yum Restaurant International.
US-based restaurant group Yum! Brands is planning to open 20 KFC outlets in Nigeria during 2011.
Additionally, beginning in May 2015, a new series of US advertisements was launched featuring Darrell Hammond as Colonel Sanders.
KFC currently has more than 17,400 locations globally, Up from just one franchise in Salt Lake City in 1952. It seems unlikely, but at that rapid clip, it would surpass 30,000 locations at the start of 2015.
In a planned rotation of actors, Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan, George Hamilton and Rob Riggle portrayed Sanders in similar ads through the fall of 2016.
Back in 2017 in a fantastic piece of PR, KFC announced that they're launching a Chicken Sandwich into space.
The logo design that KFC uses today was created in 2018 and features the smiling face of Colonel Sanders within a red and white trapeze with the name KFC beneath it.
From these humble and challenging beginnings, KFC has grown to become a worldwide franchise with an estimated value of $8.5 billion and has earned a place at 86th on the World’s Most Valuable Brands 2019 list.
Today, KFC has 22,600 in 135 countries around the world with a brand value of US $8.3 billion and sales of $27.9 billion as of 27th July 2020.
"KFC Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 21, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/kfc-corporation-0
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| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wendy's | 1969 | $2.2B | 12,500 | 4,229 |
| Subway | 1965 | $16.1B | 5,000 | 466 |
| Pizza Hut | 1958 | $7.5B | 350,000 | 8,796 |
| McDonald's | 1940 | $25.9B | 210,000 | 47,957 |
| Panera Bread | 1981 | $2.8B | 140,000 | 3,449 |
| Applebee's Canada | 1980 | $2.5B | 28,000 | 1,568 |
| Sonic Drive-In | 1953 | $423.6M | 5,000 | 2,924 |
| Johnny Rockets | 1986 | $47.8M | 1,611 | 37 |
| Yum! Brands | 1997 | $7.5B | 34,000 | 164 |
| PepsiCo | 1898 | $91.9B | 267,000 | 541 |
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KFC may also be known as or be related to KFC, KFC Corp., KFC Corporation, KFC Corporation Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp, Kfc, Ledington Foods of Elizabethtown, Inc and Kentucky Fried Chicken.