KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain that specialises in fried chicken and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The restaurant chain is owned by Yum! Brands, which also owns the big brands like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. KFC is popular worldwide for its crispy chicken and is loved worldwide. KFC’s Original Chicken recipe was developed in the 1940s and is now considered the company’s greatest asset.
- Harland Sanders founded the company On 24 September 1952 in North Corbin, Kentucky, United States. He is the same person who appears on the KFC logo.
- In 1956, KFC got its Slogan “finger lickin good,” and in 1960, the company filed a trademark for the same.
- Sanders saw the potential of restaurant franchising and established the first “Kentucky Fried Chicken” franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952. In May 1965, the first overseas franchise was established in the United Kingdom.
- Harland Sanders sold KFC for $2 million to a group of businessmen led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964. They agreed to pay Sanders a lifelong salary and to have him serve as the company’s quality controller and trademark. The corporation had 3000 stores in 48 countries by 1970.
- Heublein sold his stake in KFC to PepsiCo for $850 million in 1986. By that time, the company had 6000 stores in 48 countries and $2 billion yearly revenue. PepsiCo incorporated KFC into its portfolio, which also includes Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. In 1997, the corporation had 30,000 stores and $10 billion in yearly sales.
- In 1995, the business built its first KFC restaurant in Russia, and the country presently has over 1,000 units.
- In the year 1999, A couple who moved into Sanders’ old home discovered some scrawled notes of the recipe. The corporation went to sue them, but when they checked the scrawled notes, they discovered that the recipe was nothing like the original.
- Since 2002, KFC has been a sub-brand of “YUM!” the company that owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and many other restaurant chains. Before this, it was owned by Pepsico, and they sold Pepsico Food Systems restaurant-supply unit to Ameriserve Food Distribution Inc.
- In 2013, KFC opened its 40,000th store In Goa, India.
- The company has been valued at 5.4 billion USD.
- In 2021, the net revenue of the chain was $31.365 billion.
- Around 99% of the total KFC outlets are franchisee owned.
- As of 2022, it is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain (by sales) after McDonald’s, with 26,934 locations and 41000 branches in 146 countries.
- If you translate their famous caption “Finger lickin good” to Chinese, it translates to “eat your fingers off.”
- Soy oil is mainly used by the KFC restaurants globally for frying their tasty chicken.
- Harland Sanders’ original recipe for KFC chicken consists of ’11 Herbs and Spices.’ The company keeps the recipe a closely guarded secret. In KFC’s Louisville headquarters, a copy of the recipe signed by Harland Sanders is kept inside a vault with 11 vials containing the 11 herbs.
- The top markets for KFC are China (7,166 stores), the United States (3,943 stores), Japan (1,140 stores), Russia (979 stores), South Africa (955 stores), the United Kingdom (928 stores), Thailand (853 stores), Malaysia (743 stores), Indonesia (742 stores), Australia (699 stores), and Canada (601 stores).
- In Baku, Azerbaijan, you will be able to find the biggest KFC restaurant in the world. The restaurant has a seating arrangement for about 300 people and sells approximately 1.5 million meals per year.
- The Smallest KFC IN THE WORLD was once stationed at 919 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland. The KFC was nothing more than a toy house and offered free meals to its customers but in very tiny sizes and quantities.
- In the year 2019, KFC spent 162.6 million USD on advertisement alone in the United States. However, the number got to 116.6 million in 2020, and in 2021, it was 98.4 million USD.
- KFC is the first major fast food corporation to introduce a plant-based chicken product to its menu. It ‘tastes like fried chicken’ but is made of plants and was introduced in the United States on January 10th, 2022.
- In Japan, it has almost been a tradition to visit this Chicken restaurant on the eve of Christmas.
