The brand formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken is ready to leave its home state and head west for good.
KFC Is Leaving Kentucky
Yum! Brands, the parent company of restaurant KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, announced Tuesday that it will move the chicken chain’s corporate employees out of Louisville.
The move is notable given KFC’s ties to Kentucky. Kentucky Fried Chicken, as it was once branded, was originally started in approximately 160 miles southeast of Louisville in Corbin, Kentucky.
Yum! Brands Louisville Kentucky
In a press release this week, Yum! Brands said KFC’s corporate employees in Louisville will be moved to the KFC and Pizza Hut global headquarters in Plano, Texas. The company called the move a “strategic decision.”
The move will affect approximately 100 KFC employees.
Wild Origin Story Of Kentucky Fried Chicken
KFC has one of the more interesting origin stories among chain restaurants.
The Colonel Sanders image that has long been associated with the brand is a real person who KFC says started selling chicken out of service stations in Kentucky in the 1930s.
Signboard of KFC
“There. he started serving his delicious fried chicken to interstate travelers eventually perfecting the pressure cooker method and his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spice,” KFC says on its website.
The first franchise wouldn’t open until 1952 when Kentucky Fried Chicken popped up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Five years later, the chicken bucket was invented.
Sanders eventually sold his restaurant in Corbin and headed out on the road in hopes of opening more Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises.
Kentucky Fried Chicken transitioned to being just KFC in 1991.
KFC Leaving Something Behind For Louisville
While KFC’s corporate employees may be headed to Texas, the company plans to leave a little something behind for the Blue Grass State.
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KFC is planning what it calls a “first-of-its-kind flagship restaurant” that will be located in Louisville. Yum! Brands is also working with the University of Louisville to fund various scholarships.
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