Colonel Harland Sanders
Colonel Harland Sanders, born September 9, 1890,
actively began franchising his chicken business at
the age of 65. Now, the KFC?business he started has
grown to be one of the largest quick service food
service systems in the world. And Colonel Sanders,
a quick service restaurant pioneer, has become a
symbol of entrepreneurial spirit.
More than a 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 80 countries and territories
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
several 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.
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, Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. In May 2002, the company
announced it received shareholders' approval to change it's corporation
name to Yum! Brands, Inc. The company, which owns A&W All-American
Food Restaurants, KFC, Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
restaurants, is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system units
with nearly 32,500 in more than 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 restaurants around
the world.
And it all began with a 65-year-old gentleman who used his $105 Social
Security check to start a business.