About Company
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
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' 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"