KFC vs Chick-fil-A | The Colonel’s Last Stand | 5

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the 1970’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken has yet another new owner: Heublein, the company known for introducing Americans to Smirnoff’s vodka. But KFC brand ambassador Harland Sanders creates a PR fiasco by accusing his new corporate bosses of letting standards slide and ruining the company. As the recession and Sanders wrath hammer revenues, the chain radically changes course, and commits to a “Re-colonelization,” reinstating many of Sanders’ original recipes, and reinvesting in its disenchanted franchisees. Kentucky Fried Chicken surges just as Chick-fil-A makes a series of fatal errors; they lose millions in a marketing misstep, and take on debt to expand rapidly in shopping centers. As the recession deepens, and consumers as well as developers shun malls, Chick-fil-A faces financial ruin. Meanwhile, Popeyes has his own debt-fueled misadventures. Owner Al Copeland leans hard into the 1980s junk bond market and attempts to catch up with KFC by leveraging a hostile takeover of Church’s Fried Chicken, with fatal results.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	A note to listeners, this episode contains adult content and language.
0:18.0	It's a muggy summer day in 1975 on the banks of Otter Creek, 25 miles south of Louisville,
0:29.3	Kentucky.
0:30.3	Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO Barry Rose wades into the rushing water and casts a fly upstream.
0:37.7	He's 48 and decked out in Waders' khaki fishing best and a hat studded with lures.
0:43.6	John Brown, his predecessor at Kentucky Fried Chicken, is standing at the shoreline.
0:48.6	Muddy water is seeping into his penny loafers.
0:52.3	Rouse reels his line back in.
0:55.0	John, you didn't have to rush out here on a Saturday just to talk about Sanders' wife's
0:58.6	new restaurant.
1:00.2	It's trademark infringement pure and simple.
1:02.5	They called it the Colonel's Ladies Dinner House and he serves Kentucky Fried Chicken.
1:07.3	We had to sue him.
1:09.5	Four years ago, Brown merged Kentucky Fried Chicken with Connecticut-based High Blind
1:13.1	Inc., a beverage company.
1:15.2	He's still on the company's board and has come to love and respect Sanders.
1:20.1	Brown bends over and scrapes some mud off the toe of his shoe.
1:23.8	Like you're right to call him on using his name in the company name, I understand that
1:27.2	you can't let him get away with setting a precedent.
1:30.1	But you have to understand, the Colonel is still important to this company.
	...

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