⛫ The Interesting Case of KFC in Utah

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KFC has roughly 3,500 franchise locations in the U.S., but in Utah, it’s not quite the same.

Like any franchise, each location has to pay royalties to the franchisor. So in the case of KFC franchise owners, their royalties are paid to Yum! Brands, the ~$40 billion parent company of KFC.

Except…for the franchisees in Utah. The state is home to about 40 or so locations. They look like any other KFC, and their menu (from what I can tell) is largely the same.

But those locations don't answer to Yum! Brands.

Thanks to a deal dating back to 1964, they pay royalties to a company called Harman Management Corp. Turns out, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken didn’t open in Kentucky. It actually opened in Utah in the 1950's.

Side note: Utah Fried Chicken doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

The franchisee of location #1 was a gentleman named Pete Harman - a good friend of Colonel Sanders (the statue in the picture above is Pete Harman and Colonel Sanders at KFC #1).

Thanks to the success Pete had with his initial location, Colonel Sanders gained the confidence to franchise KFC nationally.

Fast forward to 1964 when the Colonel is getting acquired -

As a way of saying thank you for Pete’s important early contributions, the Colonel carved out the state of Utah in the sale of KFC.

So to this day, Harman Management Corp is not only a franchisee of KFC, with ~260 locations across 8 states, but they’re also exclusively -in the state of Utah - the franchisor of the brand.

It’s the only concept I know at international scale with a nuance like this.

If anyone out there knows anyone at Harman Mgmt, I’d appreciate an intro as I’d love to chat with them and learn more about their history!

Along with the Venture Kitchen team, he’s a co-founder of Minnie Bird, which recently began franchising.

In our conversation, Sean shares what it was like growing up with Dave, and gives some inside baseball on Wendy’s origins.

We also discuss the journey building Minnie Bird, their early franchising success (3+ franchisees already), and their 3 core product pillars:

• Fried chicken

• Dirty soda

• Free ice cream!

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