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KFC slows down fast food

KFC made a public recommitment to the standards set forth by founder Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952.

April 7, 2016

KFC 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, according to a company press release.

"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," Marker said. "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 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 — To show its commitment to doing things "The Hard Way," KFC 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 like.

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 every restaurant in the country in an effort to retrain every KFC employee on cooking its chicken, the release stated.

"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," Marker said. "And today is the day we're ready to welcome you back."

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