Col. Harland Sanders:
American Fast Food
Pioneer
Col. Harland Sanders:
American Fast Food
Pioneer
In the beginning...
Colonel Harland Sanders, born September 9, 1890, actively began franchising
his chicken business at the age of 65. Now, the Kentucky Fried Chicken®
business he started has grown to be one of the largest retail food service systems
in the world. And Colonel Sanders, a quick service restaurant pioneer, has become
a symbol of entrepreneurial spirit.
More than two billion of the Colonel's "finger lickin' good" chicken dinners
are served annually. And not just in North America. The Colonel's cooking is
available in more than 82 countries around the world.
When the Colonel was six, his father died. His mother was forced to go to work,
and young Harland had to take care of his three-year-old brother and baby sister.
This meant doing much of the family cooking. By the age of seven, he was a master
of a score of regional dishes.
At age 10, he got his first job working on a nearby farm for $2 a month. When
he was 12, his mother remarried and he left his home near Henryville, Ind.,
for a job on a farm in Greenwood, Ind. He held a series of jobs over the next
few years, first as a 15-year-old streetcar conductor in New Albany, Ind., and
then as a 16-year-old private, soldiering for six months in Cuba.
After that he was a railroad fireman, studied law by correspondence, practiced
in justice of the peace courts, sold insurance, operated an Ohio River steamboat
ferry, sold tires, and operated service stations. When he was 40, the Colonel
began cooking for hungry travelers who stopped at his service station in Corbin,
Ky. He didn't have a restaurant then, but served folks on his own dining table
in the living quarters of his service station.
As more people started coming just for food, he moved across the street to a
motel and restaurant that seated 142 people. Over the next nine years, he perfected
his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices and the basic cooking technique that
is still used today.
As we grew...
Sander's fame grew. Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935
in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine. And in 1939, his
establishment was first listed in Duncan Hines' "Adventures in Good Eating."
In the early 1950s a new interstate highway was planned to bypass the town of
Corbin. Seeing an end to his business, the Colonel auctioned off his operations.
After paying his bills, he was reduced to living on his $105 Social Security
checks.
Confident of the quality of his fried chicken, the Colonel devoted himself to
the chicken franchising business that he started in 1952. He traveled across
the country by car from restaurant to restaurant, cooking batches of chicken
for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favorable, he
entered into a handshake agreement on a deal that stipulated a payment to him
of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold. By 1964, Colonel Sanders had
more than 600 franchised outlets for his chicken in the United States and Canada.
That year, he sold his interest in the U.S. company for $2 million to a group
of investors including John Y. Brown Jr., who later was governor of Kentucky
from 1980 to 1984. The Colonel remained a public spokesman for the company.
In 1976, an independent survey ranked the Colonel as the world's second most
recognizable celebrity.
Under the new owners, Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation grew rapidly. It went
public on March 17, 1966, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on January
16, 1969. More than 3,500 franchised and company-owned restaurants were in worldwide
operation when Heublein Inc. acquired KFC Corporation on July 8, 1971, for $285
million.
Kentucky Fried Chicken became a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc.
(now RJR Nabisco, Inc.), when Heublein Inc.was acquired by Reynolds in 1982.
KFC was acquired in October 1986 from RJR Nabisco, Inc. by PepsiCo, Inc., for
approximately $840 million.
In January 1997, PepsiCo, Inc. announced the spin-off of its quick service restaurants
-- KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut -- into an independent restaurant company. The
spin-off should be completed during the fourth quarter 1997. The new restaurant
company, TRICON Global Restaurants, Inc., will be the world's largest restaurant
system with more than 29,500 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants in nearly
100 countries and territories.
Until he was fatally stricken with leukemia in 1980 at the age of 90, the Colonel
traveled 250,000 miles a year visiting the KFC empire he founded.
And it all began with a 65-year-old gentleman who used his $105 Social Security
check to start a business.
