KFC - Kentucky Fried Chicken

Popularly known as KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken is a worldwide known fast food restaurant food chain. It is an American brand and has a presence in 150 countries. Kentucky is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and has a specialization in pressure fried chicken. It is considered to be the second-biggest food chain after Mc Donald's and dominos. Its subsidiary is Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Wing Street chains. Colonel Harland Sanders was an entrepreneur who started selling fried chicken in streetside restaurants during the time of the great depression. KFC serves its product in 24,104 locations with products. He popularized the "Kentucky Fried Chicken" concept and started it by opening its franchise called Utah in 1952. Since then, they started diversifying their business and tried to establish dominance in the market. This company witnessed a rapid expansion, and aging Sander sold it to John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964. They were the first Americans who tried to expand their base out of America, and they started with establishing outlets in Canada, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and Mexico in the 1960s.

KFC has gone through many changes since its ownership has been transferred from one individual to another. But it continued to expand and also opened its store in China. It has grown rapidly in China and has also dominated the food chain industry in China. KFC has a specialization in selling pressure-fried chicken pieces mixed with Sander's recipe of 11 herbs and spices. KFC diversified its menu from fried chicken, wraps, Chicken sandwiches, Hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, salads, Desserts, Breakfast. KFC has an income of US$27.9 billion and is the richest restaurant company. KFC has also coined some of the famous slogans "It'sFinger-lickin' good!", "Nobody does chicken like KFC" and "So good".

History

Sanders was born in 1890 and spent his childhood in Henryville, Indiana (near Louisville, Kentucky). Sanders was the elder son and had the responsibility of raising and taking care of his two brothers. When Sander was 5 years old, his father died, and his mother was forced to work in a canning plant. When Harland Sanders reached the age of 7 years, he learned to cook by his mother. At the age of 13, he left home, and Sanders changed his several professions from time to time and met with some success. Sanders, in 1930, owned Shell filling Station on US Route 25 outskirt North Corbin, Kentucky. It is a tiny town on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains.

KFC Operations

KFC is a part of the brand Yum, and Yum is one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. KFC was brought under Delaware General Corporation Law. KFC headquarters face similarity with the White House as it is a three-storeyed building built on the margins of colonial style. It stores executive houses and works for the company's research and development. KFC sales rose to $23 billion in 2013. As of December 2013, KFC has 18,875 outlets in 118 countries globally. It has maximum outlets in China, 4,563; 4,491 in the United States of America, and 9,821 across the globe. These outlets are owned by the franchises and, in some cases, directly owned by the company. The company owns eleven percent of the outlets, and the remaining are with the franchise holder. KFC is capital intensive; therefore, ownership provides them in expanding the chain.

KFC does not provide delivery services like Dominos. However, it provides delivery service to limited locations. KFC sell their products in the name of its founder Colonel Harland Sanders. Greg Creed, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Yum, has the sole responsibility of the KFC. Sam Su is chairman, and Chief Executive Officer presides over the operations in China.

The company wishes to increase its outlets in the African countries and compete for regional outlets present in the subcontinent. KFC has not been able to expand in the African continent due to a lack of quality of suppliers and sourcing issues. KFC had inaugurated its first outlets in Egypt in 1973 Mauritius in 1983. KFC has 21 outlets in Mauritius.

KFC has major business operations in several Asian Countries. Until 2014, KFC had 25 restaurants in Sri Lank, and it established its restaurant in 1995 at Majestic City. KFC in Singapore is managed by KFC (Malaysia). It came to Singapore in 1977, and the KFC franchise was opened on Somerset Road. KFC opened its outlet in Cambodia in 2008. They also opened in Myanmar in 2015 on Aung San Road. Phillippines had its store inaugurated in 1967.

KFC also made its chain in Taiwan and opened its outlet in Taipei City. It opened its 100^th store in Taiwan in 1999. It is the second-biggest fast-food chain restaurant in Taiwan. Mos Burger has surpassed KFC in the number of stores in 2008. KFC had 137 stores in 2017.

KFC outlets in Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia

Bangladesh had its first KFC in 2006. It was opened at Gulshan. It has 26 KFC outlets. KFC has a presence in six cities of Bangladesh: Bogura, Khulna, Savar, Dhaka, Chattogam, Cox's Bazar, Sylhet. KFC is known for bringing new tastes over a period of time. They make an endeavor to match up the taste with the consumer.

Pakistan welcomed the first KFC outlet in Gulshan-e- Iqbal, Karachi, in 1997. It has a footprint over 31 big cities of Pakistan, and 92+ outlets countrywide in 18 are in Lahore, and 23 are in Karachi. Their menu consists of twister wrap, rice dishes, French Fries, hot wings, burgers, fried chicken, and sandwiches. They also introduced a unique food item called Zingeratha, which contains Zinger.

China has a maximum number of KFC outlets in the Asian Region, and it also has the largest restaurant chain making presence throughout China. It is managed and controlled under the banner called Yum. KFC came to China in November 1987 and opened its first outlets in Qianmen, Beijing. It serves 50 different menus in China. They also faced allegations of injecting antiviral drugs and growth hormones. This revelation made a dent in the sales of the KFC, and to come out clean, they promised to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies actively. Despite best efforts, sales were down, and growth was sluggish. They made a complete revamp of the menu to increase their sales in 2014. Government locked down Shanghai Operations of the OSI following revelations of using expired meat. It Company Yum canceled its contract once the shocking claims came into the public arena. It significantly affected the sales of the Yum, and the company saw a downward trend in their sales. They opened its outlet in Tibet.

India has 350 outlets of KFC. KFC has recognized the Indian taste and made their menu accordingly. It includes fiery grilled bucket options, hot and crispy chicken, the chicken Zinger, Krushers, and Rice Bowlz. It was opened in Banglore.

KFC has 466 outlets, and the chain has grown rapidly according to the consumer's demands. Its first outlet was opened in Jakarta in 1979.

KFC Products

KFC offers pressure-fried chicken, and it is seasoned with Colonel Harland Sander's original recipe. Fried oil includes palm oil, rapeseed, soyabean, sunflower. Chicken is pressure fried for about seven to ten minutes in oil at 185 degrees Celsius. Then it is cooled for 5 minutes. KFC discards chicken if it is not sold within 90 minutes to ensure its freshness. KFC serves chicken sandwiches, wraps, and Popcorn chicken.

McCormick and company is the largest supplier of KFC. It provides sauces, marinades, and seasonings, and they have been associated with KFC for a long time. It has a long association with Pepsico, and they also serve PepsiCo products and the main menu. But in some countries, these PepsiCo products are not served like Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, Turkey, Barbados, and the Philippines.

Along with PepsiCo, they also serve beverages to the consumer. Frozen beverages containing "real bits" such as oreo, shortcake, and Kit Kat are present at the 2,000 outlets.

Regional menu of KFC

KFC has to keep in mind the consumer's taste and regional diversity. KFC provide grilled chicken to its consumer in the United States and the United Kingdom. Islamic Countries prefer Chicken as Halal. Asian Countries prefer spicy chicken, and it is served as a Zinger sandwich. It has a hot and spicy coating containing spicy flavor and crisp in nature. Grilled chicken in Sri Lanka is known as "smoky red".

Equipment

They first tried on stovetop-covered cooking pots to frying the chicken. KFC used the Hartzog model, and the model had no oil filtration system. It cost $16,000 for this device. The filtering done is manually and sometimes also gets exploded cause harm to the employee. Later, Winston L Shelton, an inventor and engineer introduced a "Collectramatic" pressurized fryer. It solved the existing problems of KFC. It helped them quickly fry the chicken and meet the growing needs of the consumer. Collectramatic used precision timing, temperature control, and self filtered the cooking oil. This is done while meeting the Colonel's high standards. Fred Jeffries, the company's vice president, made a statement claiming that the introduction of Collectramatic has fuelled the expansion and has changed the fortunes and rapid growth. Many franchises have bought Collectramatic, and they had the support of Colonel Sanders. John Brown, who has owned multiple franchises of KFC, has warned regarding using Collectramatic, and he said it is violating the contract. But his views changed when he learned that his father used the same types of equipment. Later they made a transition from a Collectramatic cooker to pressure fryers. Henry Penny produced it, and it supplemented various equipment to the KFC. It includes automatic oil filtration, increased load capacity, and increased oil longevity.

Advertising

KFC has advertised its products extensively since its first franchise in 1952. Its chain used the slogan calledfinger-lickin' good, which originated in 1956. KFC founder Harland Sanders developed his persona called Colonel persona. He used this persona and image to brand his products. It is used in the whole chain of advertisements.

Sander has been a key symbol of the organization and an "international symbol of hospitality". Its concept officer Jeff Moddy claimed it provides them new opportunities to connect with their consumers and communicate their products in a more structured way. They also hired an actor Henderson Forsythe to depict the Colonel in a television campaign called "The Colonel's way". An animated version of the Colonel has the voice of Randy Quaid and the aired on television. This animated version was dropped in 2001 in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2002. At the beginning of May 2015, Darrell Hammond started portraying Colonel in the KFC Commercials. And later, with having comedian Norm Macdonald launched a new campaign for the KFC and, as usual, portrayed Colonel Sanders.

Criticism and Controversies

At the inception of the 21^st century, fast-food restaurants have come under scathing attack for their animal welfare issues, obesity, and environmental impact. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have raised their voices against the slaughtering of reckless poultry. KFC Canada has pledged to use "animal-friendly" suppliers. Green peace has made an accusation Against KFC Europe of sourcing soyabean for its chicken feed from Cargill. Cargill has been accused of clearing large swathes of Amazon Forest to grow the crop. KFC has been criticized for using growth hormone and an excess of antibiotics in China. This had affected the sales of KFC for a brief period. It took them a quarter of a month to bounce back after the allegations. Greenpeace also accused KFC of availing paper pulp for its packaging from Indonesian rainforest wood. Some forensic experts have claimed that some packaging has more than 50% mixed tropical hardwood fiber, which is availed from Asia Pulp and paper. But KFC parent company Yum stated that 60% of the paper products are from sustainable sources.