The chain's founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, is recognized all over the state, from murals to museums
This one hurt …
Corporate headquarters move frequently enough for such an announcement to not be much of a shock.
Until it is.
Such was the case when Chipotle moved from Denver, where it was founded, to Newport Beach, Calif., in 2018, or when California-born Carl’s Jr. moved to Tennessee that same year. Papa Johns moved much of its corporate staff from Louisville to Atlanta in 2021.
But those were mere ripples when compared to this week’s announcement that the KFC U.S. headquarters would be moving to Plano, Texas, from Louisville. Colonel Harland Sanders spent most of his life in Kentucky. His brainchild, KFC, was founded in Kentucky. Its Louisville headquarters have been around since 1970.
The “K” in KFC stands for Kentucky.
To put a finer point on it, the brand and the state are synonymous. Relocating the business from Kentucky to Texas is not only devastating for those of us who live in Kentucky, it’s borderline brand malpractice. Yes, it’s personal to me as a Louisville resident, so I am working through some feelings, but there are murals of Sanders all over my city. You can’t walk into a gift shop without seeing his likeness or some type of signature KFC-related tchotchkes. There is a Colonel Sanders statue in our airport and another one at our visitor’s center downtown.
There are museums celebrating his entrepreneurial legacy in both Corbin and Louisville. Yes, his significance is big enough in this state to support TWO museums.
I get it — on paper, it makes plenty of sense for KFC U.S. to be proximate to its global peers who oversee operations for more than 30,000 restaurants in 150 countries and territories. The point of having a massive global system like Yum Brands, which is also the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and the Habit Burger & Grill, is to leverage synergies and learnings and that’s hard to do when teams are 800-plus miles apart. I’m sure there are some favorable tax and talent benefits that tip in Texas’ favor here, too.
Plus, its global peers have been doing just fine lately, while KFC U.S. has been struggling and could use a bit of a tailwind. Both divisions are also transitioning into new leadership, with Scott Mezvinsky taking over as global CEO, and Catherine Tan-Gillespie moving into the U.S. president role, so the timing is ripe to start fresh.
But the “K” in KFC stands for Kentucky …
In a statement about the move, Yum CEO David Gibbs said, “These changes position us for sustainable growth and will help us better serve our customers, employees, franchisees, and shareholders. Ultimately, bringing more of our people together on a consistent basis will maximize our unrivaled culture and talent as a competitive advantage. I’m confident this is another important step in growing our iconic restaurant brands globally.”
I would argue, however, that brands don’t become “iconic” out of thin air, nor is culture easily duplicated in unfamiliar territory. In other words, you can take the brand out of Kentucky, but you can’t take the Kentucky out of the brand, and it could prove challenging for KFC to maintain its DNA from a business park in Plano.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
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