Fried chicken giant KFC is leaving Kentucky and moving to Texas.
KFC announced on Tuesday that the company will switch its U.S. headquarters from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas, causing 100 employees to relocate alongside the headquarters within the next six months.
“I am disappointed by this decision and believe the company's founder would be, too,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. “This company's name starts with Kentucky, and it has marketed our state's heritage and culture in the sale of its product.”
According to the chain’s owner, Yum! Brands, KFC’s relocation is part of a larger plan to eventually have two corporate headquarters, one in Plano and the other in Irvine, California.
In addition to KFC employees relocating, Yum! Brands are also asking roughly 90 members of their remote workforce to relocate. Those 90 employees are expected to move over the next 18 months.
Despite moving the chain from Kentucky to Texas, the company and the KFC Foundation plan to maintain corporate offices in Louisville, Kentucky. The chain is also planning on opening a flagship store in Louisville.
“These changes position us for sustainable growth and will help us better serve our customers, employees, franchisees, and shareholders,” David Gibbs, Yum! Brands Chief Executive Officer said, according to a local Fox outlet.
“Ultimately, bringing more of our people together on a consistent basis will maximize our unrivaled culture and talent as a competitive advantage. I’m confident this is another important step in growing our iconic restaurant brands globally.”
KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders who first served chicken to travelers at a roadside motel in Kentucky in the 1930s.
The first of the company’s many restaurants opened in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1952, with the first franchisee Pete Harman.
Sanders originally began selling his fried chicken in service stations throughout Nicholasville and Corbin, Kentucky, where he worked on creating a recipe using a pressure cooker and a blend of 11 different herbs and spices.
He sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Sr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964. The company was led by multiple different people throughout the years before being consolidated with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division in 1997 into what was rebranded as Yum! Brands 2002.
KFC currently has more than 30,000 restaurants across 150 countries.
