Abstract
Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC is an American fast food chain founded in 1939 by Harland D. Sanders. Firstly, we examine the sharp rise of the KFC corporation between 1964 and 1986. Sanders had sold his own business for 2 million dollars in 1964, and, 22 years later, PepsiCo, a multinational firm, acquired this same business for 840 million dollars. This figure leads us to examine the profitability and the success of this company. KFC, along with its different franchisees in worldwide operations, is one of the famous fast food chains all over the world, along the lines of McDonald's. However, the fast food market is saturated in USA with many competitors and scarce market shares.
Hence, in 1987, KFC, supervised by Tony Wang, decided to seize a huge opportunity in the world fast food market and entered the Chinese market. In 1987, the gamble was beginning to look very risky. Chinese food habits were very difficult to foresee and they didn't know if the Chinese were ready to adapt to this difficult lifestyle move.
Notwithstanding these trials, KFC and Tony Wang succeeded in convincing the Chinese by a suitable strategy and goodwill techniques. In fact, KFC became the leading fast food chain in China and continues to be the only one .
To understand this Chinese success and analyze KFC‘s strategy in this country, we will examine the external environment and the value chain of this incredible company.
