COLENEL HARLAND SANDERS (KFC)

SYNOPSIS:

·        Introduction

·        Childhood

·        Life getting better

·        Grand success  of the KFC

·        Death of the legend

·        KFC Nowadays

 

INTRODUCTION:

                                                                “Colonel Harland David Sanders “is an American Entrepreneur who was the founder of the KFC. While reading his biography I get to know two things. The first thing is to never lose hope at any situation, no matter how many obstacles comes, we have to go through it. The other one is “success doesn’t depend  upon our Age”.  So let us see in detail about him.

CHILDHOOD:

                                                Harland David Sanders was born on September 09,1890  on Henryville, Indiana. We should agree that Sanders childhood was very tough. First, he was not the only child in the family, their family was not  also 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. So their family was in the running somewhat fine .

                   The problem became very serious when his 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 was when our legend is only 6 years old. His life changed dramatically,  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.

                   Then he went working to the tomato canning factory with his mother and after some years he became a chef in the same company. When his mother remarried, he escaped from home because his stepfather beat him very hardly and tortured him. Sanders volunteered for the U.S. Army at the age of 15 years. He served in the U.S. Army and ended his service in Cuba. During his early years Sanders tried very hard to come up in his life but failed in everything he stepped in. He 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 who died at an early age, and two daughters, Mildred Sanders  Ruggles and Margaret Sanders. After a while he failed in that job also and was fired. 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”. After that 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.

          He was already in his 40s and for long time our legend was in despaire and depressed. 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 was  very small but got it in an very nice location, 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. 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. All customers noted the quality of its seasoning, which he prepared from 11 different spices. Life began to improve. In order to increase his income, Harland bought a pressure cooker this was his first pressure cooker Usually it took about 30 minutes to prepare chicken, but now it’s time has been reduced to 9 minutes.

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. in fact people all over the county were talking about the “national dish” of the state from Colonel Harland Sanders. In 1937, he opened the motel Sanders Court & Cafe, which was also an independent fast food restaurant. 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.

 In 1949, Sanders finally married his secretary Claudia Ledington. In 1949, Sanders was honoured once again with the title of Kentucky colonel, this time by Lieutenant Governor Lawrence Weather by. Being a Colonel, Harland Sanders developed his appearance starting to wear a white suit and black bow tie. And nowadays Harland Sanders is being seen on the logos of KFC. Once even the building of motel burned down. It was built up again quickly and resumed its job within a few months after the accident. The state government tried to help Harland because his fried chicken was a showplace in Kentucky.

n 1956, there was completed the construction of Interstate 75, bypassing Corbin. Sanders’ restaurant was out of sight from passing by travelers. The number of customers decreased dramatically. The once-successful business rolled down. He was forced to sell the property for $75,000 to pay his debts. He was almost broke when he was 66 years old, living off a monthly Social Security check of $105 and some savings. After a while Sanders decided to move to Shelbyville, Kentucky.

Grand success  of the KFC:

                                                                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 travelled throughout the U.S. in his 1946 Ford.

                   He started visiting other restaurants of America .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. 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 Sander’s net worth estimated at $3.5 million. He just had to meet with the media, customers, employees, in general to lead marketing.

Death of the legend:

                             In 1980, at the age of 90 years, Harland Sanders died. In recent years he was travelling, 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. Currently, Yum! Brands employs more than 1,500,000 employees and the net income as of 2013 amounted to $1.091 billion.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Colonel Harland Sanders biography and amazing history of KFC Company and its inspired you to new discoveries.