4/5 Harshad K. 9 months ago on Google
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 Salt
Lake
City, 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.