Kfc History
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Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Global Fast-Food Industry:
KFC : world’s largest chicken restaurant chain and third largest fast-food chain in 2004
One of the first fast-food chains to go international, one of the world’s most recognizable brands.
KFC’s early international strategy: grow its company and franchise restaurant base throughout the world пє refocused in 2004 on several high growth markets (China, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa, and more) пє company-owned restaurants (greater control over product quality, service and restaurant cleanliness). In other international markets grow primarily through franchises, operated by local business people who understood local market.
Company’s History of KFC:
Harland Sanders (1952) created “Colonel Sanders Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken” пє by 1960 more than 200 take-home retail outlets and restaurants (franchises) across the U.S.
He sold his business to Jack Massey and John Young Brown пє these 2 businessmen concentrated on growing KFC’s franchise system across the U.S.
By the late 60’s пє strong foothold in the U.S., attention for international markets пє In 1969 joint venture with company in Japan, and rights to operate franchises in England were acquired.
By 1971, KFC had established 2450 franchises and 600 company-owned restaurants in 48 countries
Heublein, Inc
In 1971 KFC was acquired Heublein, Inc. (business for producing alcoholic beverages) пє little experience in restaurant business.
Conflicts between Colonel Sanders and Heublein management пє Sanders upset over poor quality control and restaurant cleanliness.
Heublein sent in a new management team to redirect KFC’s strategy пє “back-to-the-basics”-strategy. New restaurant construction stopped until existing restaurants could be upgraded and operating problems removed. пє This strategy enabled KFC to gain better control of its operations (soon it was again aggressively building new restaurants)
R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc.
In 1982 RJR acquired Heublein and merged it into wholly owned subsidiary. (RJR’s corporate strategy was: diversify into unrelated businesses to reduce dependence on the tobacco industry).
RJR had little more experience in restaurant business (than Heublein).
RJR allowed KFC to operate by itself. KFC’s top management team was left largely intact пє RJR avoided many of the operating problems that Heublein had.(Heublein wanted to manage KFC with own managers)
RJR subsequently divested (wegdoen) many of its nonconsumer food businesses пє KFC was sold to PepsiCo Inc. in 1986.
PepsiCo, Inc.
PepsiCo, Inc. is merger between Pepsi-Cola Co. and Frito-Lay Inc. (1965) пє one of the largest consumer products companies in the U.S. Pepsi-Cola’s traditional business was the sale of soft drink concentrates to licensed independent and company-owned bottlers.
PepsiCo believed the restaurant business complemented its consumer product orientation. The marketing of fast-food followed many of the same patterns as soft dinks and snack foods.
PepsiCo believed it could take advantage of numerous synergies by operating the 3 businesses (soft drink, snack foods and fast food) under the same corporate umbrella and its managements skills could be transferred among the three businesses.
PepsiCo’s earlier acquired Pizza Hut and Taco Ball. In 1986 also KFC. These 3 restaurants chains were market leaders in the pizza, Mexican and chicken categories.
PepsiCo changed franchise contract to give it greater control over KFC franchisees. Staff at KFC was reduces to cut costs and many KFC managers were replaced with PepsiCo managers.
Several restructurings that led to layoffs throughout KFC, replacement of KFC managers with PepsiCo managers and conflicts between KFC and PepsiCo’s corporate cultures created a morale problem within KFC
KFC’s corporate culture:
– build on Colonel Sanders’ laid-back approach to management
– employees enjoyed good job security and stability
– strong loyalty over years пє Colonel’s efforts to provide benefits, pension and other nonincome needs
– friendly, relaxed atmosphere at KFC’s corporate offices.
PepsiCo’s corporate culture:
– strong emphasis on performance
– high performance, high accountability, highly driven culture.
– pressure on managers to demonstrate their management skills within short periods
– unwanted effect: employee loyalty was lost, turnover higher than in other companies
Kyle Craig (president KFC U.S. operations) about relationship PepsiCo — KFC:
KFC culture is interesting, dominated by a lot of KFC folks пє many of those intimidated by PepsiCo culture.
Today, some degree people have seen that PepsiCo’s culture can bring pretty positive results and the PepsiCo people have modified their cultural values somewhat.
Second problem for PepsiCo: poor relationship with