It’s a sad day for finger lickin’ chicken lovers all over Kentucky, as Yum Brands, KFC’s parent company, as well as the owners of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and the Habit Burger & Grill, had announced KFC Headquarters’ movement from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas only last Tuesday.
Every Exit Has A Reason, Good Or Bad
Which one this is classified as, we’ll leave that up to you.
Multiple reasons have been speculated towards the movement of the fast-food company. While Yum brand’s stated reason was to allow “greater collaborations among its brands,” most have also interpreted this move as a way to take part in the friendlier policies that Texas has been offering recently. For instance, decreased tax prices.
The parent company also said that it wanted it’s US-based remote employees to return to where their work is based, which required them to move their offices to the USA’s largest state. They mentioned that the hope was for this move to “improve company culture and home talent.”
This whole process is expected to take about 18 months.
How does everyone react to this?
As it turns out, it’s rather clucking bad…
One way to anger some people would be to move a company’s headquarters away from its home. It gets worse when the company you’re moving is already named after its home state! At that point, you’ll probably anger a lot of people.
And finger lickin’ goodness, they did exactly that.
Yum Brands, alongside the KFC Foundation, their charity group, mentioned that although their headquarters would be leaving the state, corporate offices will remain in Louisville, where they’ve always been.
Kentucky’s mayor and governor are relieved that the most important jobs are to remain in their hometown, but they are still disappointed by the movement of the main offices.
In a statement, Kentucky’s Governor, that being Andy Beshear, said “I am disappointed by this decision and believe that the company’s founder would be, too.”
He continues on, saying that “This company’s name starts with Kentucky, and it has marketed our state’s heritage and culture in the sales of its product.” Beshear hopes that the company rethinks moving its own employees out of Kentucky.
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With this, though, the restaurant won’t become a Texas Fried Chicken. It just doesn’t have the same ring. And regardless of the business location shift, Kentucky Fried Chicken will always be Kentucky Fried Chicken, whether you or the chickens like it or not.
Restaurant locations will likely not be changed as a direct result of the transfer. But after selling chicken since 1930, for almost 105 years, and opening their first location in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952, it’s safe to say that this move would have Colonel Harland Sanders saying “Finger lickin’ not so good.”
