KFC

KFC, abbreviated from Kentucky Fried Chicken, is an American fast food restaurant chain, founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in North Corbin, Kentucky, in 1930, and currently headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
==History==
Harland Sanders (September 9, 1890 - December 16, 1980 [aged 90]) took over a Shell filling station on U.S. Route 25 just outside North Corbin, Kentucky, a small town on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in the year 1930. He served customers with recipes he learned as a child, which included fried chicken, steaks, and country ham. After four years of serving from his own dining room table, Sanders purchased the larger filling station on the other side of the road and expanded to six tables. In 1937, he expanded his restaurant to 142 seats and added a motel he purchased across the street, naming it Sanders Court & Café.
Sanders felt dissatisfied with the 35 minutes it took to prepare chicken in an iron frying pan, but he refused to deep fry the chicken, which he believed would lower the quality of the product. Even if he pre-cooked the chicken in advance of orders, there was sometimes wastage at day's end. In 1939, the first commercial pressure cookers were introduced it the market, mostly designed for steaming vegetables. Sanders was entrusted with one and modified it into a pressure fryer, which he then used to fry chicken. The new method reduced production time to be comparable with deep frying while, in the opinion of Sanders, retaining the quality of pan-fried chicken.
In July 1940, Sanders introduced the "Original Recipe", which was mixed in with 11 herbs and spices. By 1952, Sanders was willing to grow his business into a franchise. While his café continued to draw customers, the country was beginning to develop interstate highways, which caused vehicles to sometimes bypass the café. Undaunted, Sanders Sanders sold his properties and traveled across the country to promote his recipe to restaurant owners.
Sign painter Don Anderson came up with the name of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which seemingly impressed Sanders. Sanders decided to abbreviate the words to KFC to avoid a long title for business, and it paved the way towards opening multiple locations across the country. In 1957, KFC introduced a bucket meal that featured 14 pieces of chicken, bread rolls, and a pint of gravy. By 1963, 600 KFC locations were opened across the country, making it the most successful fast food operation in the United States.
In 1964, Sanders sold KFC to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey for $2 million. The contract included a lifetime salary for Sanders and the agreement that he would be the company's quality controller and trademark. By 1970, KFC had 3,000 locations in 48 different countries. In July 1971, Brown sold the company to Heublein, a packaged food and drinks corporation, for $285 million. In 1980, Sanders passed away due to acute leukemia. By then, there were 6,000 locations in 48 different countries worldwide, with $2 billion worth of sales annually.
In 1982, Heublein was acquired by R. J. Reynolds, the owner of his own tobacco company. In July 1986, Reynolds announced the sale of KFC to PepsiCo for $850 million. PepsiCo made the chain a part of its restaurants division alongside Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. KFC entered the Chinese market in November 1987, with a location in Beijing.
In the 1990s, KFC began offering newer products, such as hot wings, popcorn chicken, and a spicy chicken fillet sandwich. By 1994, KFC had over 9,400 locations worldwide. In August 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as a public company valued at $4.5 billion.
By 2015, KFC was on the verge of a serious decline, especially since Chick-fil-A was on the rise. As of 2023, KFC has more than 25,000 locations worldwide.
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