KFC: Company Profile

By: Robert J. Sodaro

kfc logo.JPG (265881 bytes)The fast-food chain known today as "KFC" began back in the ‘30s when Harland Sanders, (born September 9, 1890) began serving chicken to the patrons of his service station in Corbin, KY. He didn’t have a restaurant then, but served people on his own dining table in the living quarters of his service station. Eventually the operation grew and moved across the street to a motel and restaurant. In 1935, in recognition of his contributions to the state’s cuisine Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel.

In 1952 Pete Harman became the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee, with a store in Salt Lake City. In 1956, at the ripe young age of 65, the Colonel sold the Corbin, KY, location and went on the road to enlist new franchises. In 1964 he sold the chain to a group of investors including John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack Massey for $2 million. The Colonel continued on as spokesman for the company, which went public in ‘69, and then was sold to Heublein Inc. in ‘71 until his death 1980.

PepsiCo, Inc. acquired the chain in ‘86, eventually changing its name and logo to KFC in ‘91. Today, KFC has well over 9,000 locations worldwide, including China, Russia, and Australia.

It has only been over the past few years that the company has had a kid meal program that offered premiums. Virtually all of these have had been licensed products, looking to Sony (Beakman’s World, Ghostbusters); Marvel Comics (Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Wolverine); Disney (Timon & Pumbaa); Saban (Masked Rider); and others (Scholastic/ Animorphs; United Media-BBC Worldwide/Wallace & Gromit).

Unlike many of the other fast food operations, KFC tends to keep their promotions running for longer periods of time, having only four to six promotions throughout the course of the year. The advantage to this approach to meal premiums is twofold with pluses for both KFC and collectors. On KFC’s side, the company incurs less traffic, marketing, and operational expenses that are associated with acquiring and scheduling promotions. While for collectors, the advantage is that there is more time to acquire preferred toys.

A New Era: A New Name

kfc marvel.jpg (968421 bytes)In 1991, Kentucky Fried Chicken announced that it was changing its name to "KFC" and updating its packaging and logo as well to reflect a more modern look. According to the public relations info given out at the time the name change was to lure back customers to a restaurant now offering foods branded as "better for you".

Needless to say, there was more to the name change than just a PR face-lift. According to outer sources, the real reason for the name change actually dated back to 1990 when the Commonwealth of Kentucky - which was apparently mired in debt - actually trademarked the name of their state. Needless to say, the state then required any company using the word "Kentucky" for business reasons to obtain permission from the Commonwealth, and to pay licensing fees for the use of the name. While this might have been conceived as a bold and unique scheme to alleviate the state’s debt, it proved spectacularly unsuccessful.

kfc scary monster.jpg (1130872 bytes)Kentucky Fried Chicken refused to pay royalties on a name it had been using since 1953, as a matter of principal. After a year of futile negotiations with Kentucky the company simply altered its name to KFC and timed the announcement to coincide with the introduction of its new packaging and products.

Kentucky Fried Chicken was not the only company to refuse to cow-tow to the State. The Kentucky Derby officially changed its name to The Run for the Roses, while many seed and nursery companies which had previously offered Kentucky Bluegrass now sell "Shenendoah Bluegrass.

The Dawn of Darth Maul

One of the highlights of the 1999 fast food toy season was KFC’s set of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace toys that were issued in conjunction with sister companies Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The three franchises not only joined forces to issue a comprehensive set of Star Wars Episode I toys, they actually linked their three Web sites (via a Star Wars hot button), so that Web surfers could easily access the company’s sister sites. Still, not wanting to do the job half-way, each of the three Tricon Web sites was also linked directly to Lucas’ own Star Wars site (www.starwars.com), so that the extreme among them could also access the very latest official Star Wars info direct from the grand poo-pah himself. All and all a very cool concept (no matter what might be said of the movie itself).

Unfortunately for toy collectors, about four or five years ago KFC stopped issuing toys with their kids’ meals, and instead of a collectible item, they began packaging their kid meals in a colorful "laptop" container with games and trivia on the box.

Click here for a complete KFC toy list.