Kfc: History and Growth

History and growth of KFC

KFC was one of the first fast food chains to go international in the late 1950s and is one of world’s most recognisable brands.

The company was founded as Kentucky Fried Chicken by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952, though the idea of KFC's fried chicken actually goes back to 1930. Although Sanders died in 1980, he remains an important part of the company's branding and advertisements. The company adopted KFC, an abbreviated form of its name, in 1991. Starting in April 2007, the company began using its original name, Kentucky Fried Chicken, for its signage, packaging and advertisements in the U.S. as part of a new corporate re-branding program.

A change in ownership took place in the colonel sanders sold his business to Jack Messy and John Young Brown. Sanders remained as the PR man and ambassador. Massey and brown concentrated in growing KFC through Franchising.

KFC attained the benchmark of being listed on the NYSE. Another benchmark it achieved was being present Globally. With a strong foothold in America, it established in many other countries such as Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. By 1971,KFC had established 2450 franchises.

KFC entered into mergers with three companies, Heublein.Inc, R.J Reynolds Industries.Inc and PepsiCo.Inc.

In order to be successful in the merger with Heublein.Inc, KFC came out with the ‘back to the basics’ strategy where all the operating problems, cleanliness problems were solves and product consistency was reestablished. This strategy helped KFC to gain control and profitability.

R.J Reynolds Industries.Inc acquires Heublein.Inc. it let KFC function autonomously so there was no much of operating problems faced. KFC was sold to PepsiCo by R.J Reynolds Industries.Inc one year later.

After PepsiCo acquired KFC, it started implementing its own managers and rules in KFC. This led to lot of moral and cultural differences between KFC and PepsiCo. Another problem was poor...