The story of KFC begins somewhere in the 19th century in the southern states of the USA with one man who would later become the face of the international brand. Harland David Sanders  (Harland David Sanders), was born in Indiana in 1890 as the eldest of three siblings. Sanders’ father was a farmhand, and became a butcher; Sanders’ mother was a devout religious woman. Sanders’ father died in 1895, and his mother was forced to go out and work in a factory far from where they lived. Thus from a young age Sanders was forced to take care of raising his younger brothers to cook for them and feed them. This is where Sanders’ culinary career actually begins.

Sanders ‘mother remarried in 1902, a turning point that did not brighten Sanders’ face. Sanders had a murky relationship with his stepfather to say the least, resulting in dropping out of school at age 13 and leaving home at age 14  And found work as a farm worker. Between 1906 and 1930 Sanders rolled between a variety of occupations which included among others: train ticket attendant, blacksmith assistant and firefighter. He even forged his birth certificate and enlisted in the Army at age 16 and served in the cavalry. Sanders later worked in the sale of life insurance, served as a Michelin tire salesman and even set up a line of ferry boats on the Ohio River. In the evenings he studied law and even worked as a lawyer for several years.

In 1930 when he was 40 there was a significant change in his life when the oil company “Shell” offered Sanders to open a gas station in Kentucky and in return he paid the company a percentage of sales. Being the owner of a gas station was not enough for Sanders and he even started a side business where he started cooking and selling meals to tired travelers who stopped at the station. His food, which usually consisted of chicken, meat, beans, okra and hot biscuits, earned him a reputation in the area where he worked as a talented chef.

The American entrepreneur’s culinary career began to take off slowly and in 1935 Sanders was awarded the title of ‘Colonel’ by a governor  Kentucky. In 1939 food critic Duncan Haynes visited Sanders’ restaurant and included it in his restaurant guide ‘Adventures in Good Eating.’ About 10  Years after starting the restaurant business in the 1940s Sanders completed what would later be called the KFC “Secret Recipe”. We will talk more about the famous recipe.

 Just as things seemed to be working out for Colonel in the 1950s, he had to deal with two issues that few would solve. The first problem was when the junction that was right in front of his restaurant was moved to another location, thus effectively stopping the vehicle traffic that characterized the place and providing customers with Sanders. Later the second problem arose and it was the announcement that he would build a new highway that would bypass the restaurant by more than 11 kilometers.

Realizing there was no real way to continue with his restaurant, Sanders sold his restaurant site at a loss at auction. He lost most of his savings during. Without a fixed income, and back to the starting point in many ways he was forced to live on his meager savings, the proceeds from the sale of the restaurant website  And a check from Social Security for $ 105 each month.

After the jarring failure, Sanders tried a new business tactic that he tried a bit and saw there was potential. From 1959 onwards Sanders traveled throughout the United States looking for suitable restaurants that could sell his chicken idea. He proposed a model where he would get 4 cents for every chicken sold. The business model that Sanders began to actively market had already worked even before he closed the restaurant, back in 1952 he sold the first franchise for the secret recipe of “Kentucky Fried Chicken” to Pete Herman. Restaurant owner and friend in Salt Lake City.

Don Anderson, a sign painter hired by the same first franchisee Pete Herman, coined the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken.” And in 1955, Sanders registered the Kentucky Fried Chicken brand and the patented way of cooking it developed. Following Herman’s success, several other restaurant owners purchased franchises for the concept and paid Sanders 4 cents for each chicken they sold.  Thus at the age of 65 Sanders continued across the US, went into restaurants and offered to sell them franchises, he would offer the restaurant owner to try his recipe and then he would offer to work as a cook for a few days to prove how successful the recipe was, only after Sanders proved himself , He would negotiate with the restaurant owner. 

It was a very slow, expensive and even humiliating way to find business partners, and all this time Sanders (and sometimes his wife) lived in their car. About 1,000 restaurants refused to purchase the franchise he offered. But Sanders’ stubbornness in the end did succeed.

The trademark and motto of the brand “It’s Finger Lickin Good”  Registered in copyright in 1963. In 1964, after quite a bit of persuasion  Sanders decided to make an “exit” and sold the rights to his chicken recipe to over 600 restaurants and the company he built worth millions of dollars. Despite this at the time there were no restaurants called Kentucky Fried Chicken, only restaurants that sold Colonel Sanders chicken.

In the 1960s KFC spread to the United States and later to Canada, Mexico  And Jamaica. And thence to the rest of the world. Colonel Harland Sanders still accompanied the network he founded  Until he died of leukemia in 1980 at the age of 90.

Colonel Harland Sanders went through a difficult life in which he knew more failures than successes. Despite the many hurdles Colonel Sanders has managed to develop a very successful business and brand. All along the secret of Sanders’ true success apart from his tenacity is the same secret recipe with the 11 spices he developed and engraved on the back of his kitchen door and his unique cooking method. The same recipe developed somewhere in the 1930s is still in use by the chain as professional chefs traditionally expect fresh chicken in some 23,000 restaurants in more than 141 countries around the world.

The secret recipe that is the secret of KFC’s worldwide success is known only to a few and is protected in various ways. The company even intentionally buys from some suppliers the raw materials and spices just to avoid a situation where someone could recreate the recipe.