Colonel Harland Sanders has founded The KFC, an American restaurant chain . Enjoy reading This life story about entrepreneurship, delicious food, trials and failures and brilliant success.
Colonel Harland Sanders (September 09, 1890 – December 16, 1980) is an
American entrepreneur who founded the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)
restaurant chain. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is one of the oldest fast food
restaurant chains in the United States. It is famous for its fried chicken to
the whole world.
Early
Childhood :
Harland David Sanders was born on September 09, 1890 on a country road
three miles (4.8 km) east of Henryville, Indiana. It must be said that Sanders’
childhood was tough. First, he was not the only child in the family, who was
not very rich. He was the oldest of three children born to Wilbur David and
Margaret Ann Sanders.
His father worked part time, doing some errands of farmers in
Henryville. Mother did not work, as she had to take care of the children.
The problems began when the father of Harland Sanders suddenly died. In
1895 one summer afternoon, Sanders’ father came back home with a fever and died
later that day. This occurred when the future founder of KFC was only 6 years
old. His life changed dramatically. First, his mother went to work to a
tomato-canning factory to feed the family somehow. And Harland Sanders was
required to be a babysitter and take care of younger brother and sister at
home.
This fact was the key to his life. Since these factors have contributed
to the development of Sanders as the chef. All the relatives began to notice
that the little boy was a real talent in this case.
When his mother remarried, he escaped from home because his stepfather
beat him. Sanders falsified his birth date and volunteered for the U.S. Army at
the age of 15 years. He served a full term and ended his service in Cuba.
During his early years Sanders had to work as a steamboat pilot, insurance
agent, farmer and etc. Finally, he found a good regular job as a fireman in the
U.S. railway company.
Life
is Getting Better :
In 1908, having stable income Harland Sanders married Josephine King.
He had three children, a son, Harland, Jr., who died at an early age, and two
daughters, Mildred Sanders Ruggles and Margaret Sanders. After a while he was
fired for insubordination. His wife Josephine left him taken the children back
to her parents’ home. Her brother later wrote Harland a letter where he said:
“She had no business marrying a no-good fellow like you who can’t hold a job”.
Over the years he tried a lot of other jobs, but did not find any, which he
could work at for a long time.
At 40 years Harland had to change dozens of occupations. One time
Harland Sanders was trying to obtain an education enrolling in law courses, but
for an unknown reason he did not finish them.
However, when Harland was already in his 40s, he had little capital
accumulated over the years. For a long time Sanders was in despair. Most of his
life already passed, but he still was a man, who made no difference, did not
have enough money to live in pleasure and wealth. He was disappointed in life.
And, of course, he wanted to change it.
Harland Sanders bought a service station, motel and cafe at Corbin, a
town in Kentucky about 25 miles from the Tennessee border. It must be noted
that Harland seriously thought about the location of his service station,
selecting the best place for it. Along this road people traveled to Florida and
other locations from northern states and the flow of customers was endless.
Soon, Colonel Sanders began serving meals to his clients in the living
quarters, because he did not have a restaurant. He was cooking chicken dishes
and other meals such as country ham and steaks in the kitchen. Soon his service
station became famous throughout Kentucky. It was called “Kentucky Fried
Chicken of Harland Sanders.” All customers noted the quality of its seasoning,
which he prepared from 11 different spices. Life began to improve.
Colonel Sanders demonstrates a new-fangled gizmo – the
pressure cooker
In order to increase his income, Harland bought a pressure cooker. It
was a time when this type of pans just appeared on the market. He was one of
the first chefs assessed the advantages of pressure cookers. Usually it took
about 30 minutes to prepare chicken, but now it’s time has been reduced to 9
minutes. That meant that customers did not have to wait so long for a meal and
it increased number of orders.
A significant event in the life of Sanders happened in 1935, when the
governor of Kentucky, Ruby Laffoon, awarded Harland the title of Kentucky
Colonel for services to the state. And indeed, they were great: in fact people
all over the county were talking about the “national dish” of the state from
Colonel Harland Sanders.
At that time, Sanders realized that he needed to refocus his business
from the service station to something bigger. In 1937, he opened the motel
Sanders Court & Café, which was also an independent fast food
restaurant. However, fast food restaurant McDonald’s and Sanders Court &
Cafe were not comparable. Because Colonel Sanders spent about 10-15 minutes to
prepare an order. So it could not be called a fully functional fast food
restaurant.
In 1947, Harland and Josephine divorced. And in 1949, Sanders finally
married his secretary Claudia Ledington. In 1949, Sanders was honored once
again with the title of Kentucky colonel, this time by Lieutenant Governor
Lawrence Weatherby.
Being a Colonel, Harland Sanders developed his appearance starting to
wear a white suit and black bow tie. And nowadays Harland Sanders is portrayed
on the logos of KFC. This image quickly entered the hearts of ordinary
Americans, who loved a small restaurant of Sanders. He had so many clients and
net worth as he had never had before. He felt success.
In 1947, Harland and Josephine divorced. And in 1949, Sanders finally
married his secretary Claudia Ledington. In 1949, Sanders was honored once
again with the title of Kentucky colonel, this time by Lieutenant Governor
Lawrence Weatherby.
Being a Colonel, Harland Sanders developed his appearance starting to
wear a white suit and black bow tie. And nowadays Harland Sanders is portrayed
on the logos of KFC. This image quickly entered the hearts of ordinary
Americans, who loved a small restaurant of Sanders. He had so many clients and
net worth as he had never had before. He felt success.
KFC Secret Recipe Sold to Restaurants
Upon reflection, he came to the conclusion that can sell his recipe to
other restaurants. With nothing to lose, Sanders took his spices and pressure
cooker and traveled throughout the U.S. in his 1946 Ford.
He started visiting other restaurants of America. When meeting a
potential franchisee he talked about the recipe of cooking chicken and its
seasoning. It took a long time before he could find the first customer. Under
the contract, Sanders received just 5 cents for each of his sold chicken. Not
bad, considering that the volume of orders grew steadily. Needless to say that
in the early 60’s Colonel Sanders had a few hundred franchisees across the
U.S. restaurants.
And after 4 years Kentucky Fried Chicken was at the peak of glory and The old Colonel decided to sell the corporation to a private investor
John Y. Brown, Jr. Under the deal, he received $ 2 million in cash and remains
the official face of the company for which he was paid about 250,000 dollars a
year. Colonel Sanders net worth estimated at $3.5 million. He just had to
meet with the media, customers, employees, in general to lead marketing.
In 1980, at the age of 90 years, Harland Sanders died. In recent years
he was traveling, playing golf and ran their own restaurant Claudia Sanders’
Dinner House with his wife. He got disappointed at KFC, because he thought that
in the pursuit of the lowest price and speed – the owners went to a compromise
on the quality of chickens. However, after the death of Colonel the story was
not over.
KFC Nowadays
In 1986, it was acquired, by the famous Pepsi Co. In 2002 the KFC was
acquired by Yum! Brands. In addition to
KFC, the company owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants. David C. Novak is
the current Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands.
The chain of more than 39 000 restaurants operates in more than 50
countries around the world. Yum! Brands prefer to use the strategy of
co-branding. There are many varieties of foods such as fried chicken, chicken
burgers (chicken sandwiches, US), wraps, French fries, soft drinks, salads,
desserts, breakfast and etc.
David
C. Novak, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Yum! since
January 2001
Currently, Yum! Brands employs more than 1,500,000 employees
and the net income as of 2013 amounted to $1.091 billion.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading Colonel Harland Sanders biography and
amazing history of KFC Company and it’s inspired you to new discoveries.