Colonel Sanders: KFC founder who got success at 60
There’s hardly a youngster today who hasn’t seen a KFC bucket. Well, each time you hold that tempting bucket of chicken, you must have seen the face of a jolly old man with white hair and round glasses. That old man in white is referred to as Colonel Sanders. He is known everywhere for creating a fried chicken recipe that launched the world's largest fast-food chicken chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Who Was Colonel Harland Sanders?
Harland David Sanders was born on September 9, 1890, in Henryville in the state of Indiana, USA. His father died when he was just 6, so little Sanders started working to take care of his baby brother and sister. He did numerous jobs, including farmer, streetcar conductor, railroad fireman and insurance salesman. By the time he was 40, Sanders was running a gas service station in Kentucky, where he also fed hungry travellers with a yummy chicken dish. This got so popular that Sanders bought a restaurant across the street. The outrageous popularity of his fried chicken prompted Governor Ruby Laffoon to award him an honorary ‘Colonel’ – for cooking chicken!
How did the KFC chain grow?
Sanders realised the potential of his recipe. So he started franchising his fried chicken business around the country, collecting a payment for each chicken sold. His first franchise sale went to Pete Harman, a restaurant owner at Salt Lake City where the name ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ worked to suggest a regional specialty. Sanders sold his own restaurant in 1955. Now he travelled all over USA, cooking batches of chicken from restaurant to restaurant, striking deals per chicken sold!
In 1964, with more than 600 franchised outlets, he sold his interests in the company for $2 million to a group of investors. Soon, KFC went on to become a global giant.
Sanders continued to personally visit KFC restaurants around the world as an ambassador and chicken spokesman in his later years. He died on December 16, 1980, at the ripe old age of 90, in Louisville, Kentucky.