KFC RE-COLONELIZATION ANNOUNCEMENT

In a major announcement today, Kentucky Fried Chicken® made a public recommitment to the standards set forth by founder Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952. The changes enable KFC to offer a taste guarantee today in all of its U.S. restaurants called the “Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee.” The announcement was made at an event in New York, led by KFC U.S. President Jason Marker and attended by SNL alum Rachel Dratch.

KFC REVOLUTIONIZES FAST FOOD, BY SLOWING IT WAY, WAY DOWN 

Re-Colonelization effort commits the brand to doing things The Hard Way

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – April 4, 2016 – In a major announcement today, Kentucky Fried Chicken® made a public recommitment to the standards set forth by founder Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952. The changes enable KFC to offer a taste guarantee today in all of its U.S. restaurants called the “Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee.” The announcement was made at an event in New York, led by KFC U.S. President Jason Marker.

“To everyone who grew up with the familiar taste of KFC and has turned away from us in recent years, you can come back again,” said Marker. “KFC is getting back to the way our founder made chicken – The Hard Way – the right way. We’re ensuring every KFC cook understands the Colonel’s once patented process that helped make KFC the world’s most famous chicken.”

The changes – which the company is calling “Re-Colonelization” affect every one of the more than 4,200 U.S. KFC locations and include:

• Chicken Mastery Certification – The food in every KFC restaurant is cooked by real cooks, freshly prepared in store every day. To help ensure consistent training across the country, managers and cooks underwent re-certification in KFC’s “Chicken Mastery” program, retraining them in the 25-minute process for prepping and cooking Original Recipe® chicken. The process starts with quality chicken raised on U.S. farms, which is hand breaded and seasoned with the Colonel’s Secret Recipe of 11 herbs and spices and then pressure fried.
• Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee – KFC stands behind the changes it has made, and to show its commitment to doing things The Hard Way has instituted the “Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee,” which promises customers will be satisfied or the restaurant will remake the portion of their the meal they didn’t love.

KFC kicked off its Re-Colonelization initiative by hosting 43 rallies across the country, with more than 97 percent of its restaurant general managers, followed by a national training event in each and every restaurant in the country – all in an effort to retrain every single KFC employee on cooking the world’s best chicken. 

“This wasn’t a media stunt where our restaurants closed for a few hours. Over the past six months we have invested more than 100,000 hours retraining more than 20,000 employees in cooking and serving Kentucky Fried Chicken the way the Colonel intended,” said Marker. “And today is the day we’re ready to welcome you back.” 

This is not the first step in KFC’s turnaround, which started in earnest last year with significant reinvestments in updated restaurants, increased marketing spend and new equipment. Specifically, KFC has updated kitchens with state-of-the-art equipment in 98 percent of its restaurants, set a bold goal of remodeling 3,000 restaurants over the next three years, and launched its new advertising campaign featuring a reintroduction of the Colonel. 

Re-Colonelization continues KFC’s journey to becoming no. 1 on taste by the end of 2017.

About KFC

KFC Corporation, based in Louisville, Ky., is the world's most popular chicken restaurant chain. KFC specializes in Original Recipe®, Extra Crispy™, Kentucky Grilled Chicken® and Extra Crispy™ Strips, Hot Wings™, Go Cups, KFC Famous Bowls™, Pot Pies, freshly made chicken sandwiches, biscuits and home-style side items. There are more than 19,400 KFC outlets in 120 countries and territories around the world. KFC Corporation is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., Louisville, Ky. (NYSE: YUM.) For more information, visit www.kfc.com. Follow KFC on Facebook (www.facebook.com/KFC) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/kfc).

+++

KFC RE-Colonelization Announcement with Rachel Dratch

New York, 4 April 2016

1. Soundbites (English) Jason Marker, KFC U.S. President

“Today along with our 500+ franchisees we’re publicly recommitting to going back to a program we call RE-Colonelization which means going back to the hard way.”

2. Soundbites (English) Jason Marker, KFC U.S. President

“We start with 100% real quality chicken from U.S. farms—obviously there’s no added hormones or steroids.”

3. Soundbites (English) Jason Marker, KFC U.S. President

"Each piece of original recipe chicken is hand breaded and cooked by cooks in our restaurants in what we call chicken mastery. And it’s not a fast process. It’s actually really similar to what you do at home. It takes around 25 minutes to cook KFC  chicken."

4. Soundbites (English) Jason Marker, KFC U.S. President

"So we are so sure that customers will once again fall in love with the KFC brand that for the first time ever we are establishing a taste guarantee.  So effective immediately at every KFC across the United States our food is Colonel-quality guaranteed or we we’ll replace it."

6. Bob Das, KFC U.S. Head Chef demonstrates to Rachel Dratch how KFC chicken is made.

7. Rachel Dratch gets her hands dirty

8. Bob Das transports the chicken into the patented pressure fryer 

9. Rachel Dratch poses with a cardboard cutout of Colonel Sanders

10. Rachel Dratch takes a photo with a fan at lunch

11. Closeup, Rachel Dratch 

12.  A woman chooses her piece of chicken at lunch

13. Man biting into his lunch

14. Presto pressure cooker, the same type Colonel Sanders used

15. Archive photo of Colonel Sanders working in the kitchen 

16. Archive photo of Colonel Sanders posing in the kitchen 

17. Colonel Sanders clock

18. Vintage Colonel Sanders weathervane

19. Case showing vintage Colonel Sanders artifacts 

20. Woman taking pictures of artifact case 

22. Couple takes a selfie with a cardboard cutout of Colonel Sanders 

23. Female server dressed in Colonel Sanders garb waves at the camera 

24. Famous revolving KFC bucket