The business world is endlessly growing each and every day. People have invested lots of money and also other resources into building business empires. Sometimes, a business empire starts from something small. Sometimes it does not take millions and millions of dollars to build an empire. All you need is a determined heart and a focused mind to help you achieve your goal.
When it comes to building such an, find an idea which is genuine, and if you think it is worth a lot, go for it. Just as mentioned earlier, the business world has grown to be very wide and diverse. An example of a field in this wide business world is fast-food chains. Over the years, there have been different fast-food chains with different ideas and approaches to make a meal worth dying for. An example of such restaurants is KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), which is one of the biggest fast-food chains in the world.
KFC is one of the biggest fast-food chains in the world today. It is the second-biggest fast-food chain in the world according to sales with 22,621 locations globally in 136 countries as of December 2018. The company has its headquarters based in Louisville, Kentucky, and is focused on the perfection of making fried chicken.
KFC has fundamentally grown from the bottom of the pile and is very successful. The company has been feeding the population of the world for about 68 years, and due to its success over the years, the company seems like it will not stop running.
Inception
KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Who knew that the humble beginnings of Harland Sanders would lead to the creation of a fast-food empire. Sanders saw the great potential of the franchising concept, and the first KFC was opened in Utah in 1952.
The journey of Sanders began when he was a child and lost his father at the age of five. This left his mother working in a canning company. When he was about seven years old, Sanders was taught how to cook by his mother and left the family home when he was thirteen. From there, he went through different professions, and when he was 40, he took over a Shell filling station on US Route 25 where he served travelers with recipes he learnt when he was a child.
Sanders grew slowly as he cooked for people, and by 1940, he had made a recipe of 11 herbs, which he never revealed but said that the ingredients stood on everyone’s shelf, and in 1950, he was recommissioned as a Kentucky colonel by Governor Lawrence Wetherby. Sanders began playing his big moves when he began to franchise his chicken recipe to restaurant owners.
Restaurants would pay 4 or 5 cents on each chicken as a franchise fee, in exchange for Sander’s secret blend of herbs and spices and the right to feature his recipe on their menus. Pete Harman, a friend of Sanders, hired a sign painter, Don Anderson, who coined the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” and Harman also trademarked the slogan, “Its finger-licking good.” KFC also introduced their “bucket meal” served in their signature paper bucket, which ended up being the iconic feature of the company.
By 1963, KFC had 600 restaurants making it the largest fast-food company in the U.S and also popularized fried chicken, which challenged the dominance of the hamburger. In 1964, Sanders sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown and Jack C. Massey for $2 million. The contract included a lifetime salary for Sanders and that he would be the company’s quality controller and trademark.
Evolution
Sanders lost his life in 1980, but his legacy will live forever. Brown later sold the company to the Connecticut-based Heublein, a packaged food and drinks corporation, for $285 million. In 1982, Heublein was purchased by R.J. Reynolds, which sold KFC to PepsiCo for $850 million in 1986.
PepsiCo ran the company successfully over the years as they also introduced other chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. In 1987, the company introduced KFC to China, which is the company’s biggest profit gainer. The company has had a successful run ever since and is the second most successful chain of restaurants after McDonald’s.
Awards & Achievements
KFC has really become a successful company that was founded out of very little. The company has been having a lot of success due to their creativity and their unique approach to making chicken. The unique recipes of Colonel Sanders built the franchise into an empire. Because of its success, the company has been rewarded numerous times, and the awards are as follows:
- Trusted Brands Award in 2008.
- Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands Awards in 2010.
- Industrial Excellence Award for Service Sector in 2008.
- Best Operations Excellence Award in 2008.
Net Worth of KFC in 2024
KFC has had one of the best success stories for a long time, and it is the second-biggest restaurant brands of all time. For this reason, it has had a lot of monetary gains, and the company has not had any problems. As of January 2024, The company has a net worth of about $15 billion, and the net worth seems to be growing with their increasing success.
The company’s success is truly undeniable and is truly one of a kind. Nobody can deny that the company has one of the best success stories of all time. Harland Sanders built the franchise from the ground with nothing but a brilliant recipe. The company seems like it will never stop their successive run and has a bright future ahead of them.