KFC: Story of Colonel Harland Sanders

Team Udayavani, Aug 9, 2021, 10:44 AM IST

Source: pintrest

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is world-renowned for its fried chicken, the brand is known by the face of an old man with a white beard.

The founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Harland Sanders is truly amazing. His story is an example of how perseverance, dedication, and ambition can turn into success.

Colonel Harland Sanders, known for his ‘finger-lickin’ good Kentucky Fried Chicken can be easily identified by his clean, crisp white suit, black string tie, and walking cane.

At the age of 65, Harland Sanders found himself penniless after running a restaurant for several years.

The colonel really loved to share his fried chicken recipe and had a positive influence from those who tasted the chicken. He traveled door to door to houses and restaurants all over his local area, in order to partner with someone to help promote his chicken recipe.

Colonel Sanders was turned down one-thousand and nine times before his chicken was accepted once.

The deal was that for each piece of chicken the restaurant sold, Sanders would receive a nickel and in order to avoid them knowing the recipe, the restaurant would receive packets of Colonel’s secret herbs and spices.

By 1964, Colonel Sanders had 600 franchises selling his trademark chicken. He sold his company for $2 million dollars but remained as a spokesperson. He was ranked as the world’s second most recognizable celebrity.

At age 90, Sanders passed away from pneumonia. At that time, there were around 6,000 KFC locations in 48 countries. By 2013, there were an estimated 18,000 KFC locations in 118 countries.

R.J. Reynolds, a tobacco giant, acquired Heublein in 1982 and sold KFC to PepsiCo in 1986 for US $850 million.

After coming under PepsiCo, many new products were launched.

The name “KFC” was officially adopted in 1991.

As of 27th July 2020,  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. KFC is  also experimenting with plant-based meat and looking to use new technologies to expand its growth