Major fast food chain announces it is leaving the state it is famously named after

KFC is moving its headquarters from Kentucky to Texas, its parent company announced on Tuesday.

The fast food chain, founded by Colonel Harland Sanders as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is leaving its offices in Louisville to relocate in the Dallas suburb of Plano, Yum! Brands said.

Around 100 corporate employees currently based in Kentucky will be required to move to Plano over the next six months, while 90 more remote employees will also relocate over the next 18 months.

KFC will be joining Pizza Hut Global, which Yum! Brands also owns, in Texas. Taco Bell and the Habit Burger & Grill, other notable subsidiaries of the company, will remain headquartered in Irvine, California.

‘These changes position us for sustainable growth and will help us better serve our customers, employees, franchisees and shareholders,’ said David Gibbs, the CEO of Yum! Brands Chief Executive Officer. 

‘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.’

The KFC Foundation, which was founded in 2006 to help its employees go to college, will still have offices in Louisville. 

KFC will also provide a $1 million endowment to the College of Business at the University of Louisville to fund scholarships through Yum! Brands for students throughout Kentucky.

Colonel Harland Sanders (pictured in June 1977) founded KFC in 1952, opening the first franchise location in Salt Lake City, Utah

Yum! Brands also said it plans to maintain a brand presence in Louisville ‘with the ambition of building a first-of-its-kind flagship restaurant.’

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told WHAS11 that he is ‘disappointed’ the company is moving, adding that KFC was born in Louisville and ‘synonymous with Kentucky.’

Many big companies have been moving to Texas in recent years, including Tesla, Oracle and Chevron.

Texas, unlike many other states, levies no corporate or personal income taxes, making it a more friendly climate for businesses.

Kentucky, on the other hand, has a 5 percent corporate income tax. 

KFC was founded as Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952, when Colonel Sanders opened up the first franchise location in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are now over 30,000 KFC restaurants globally. 

Kentucky Fried Chicken was abbreviated to its initials in 1991 so people would hopefully no longer associate the restaurant with unhealthy ‘fried’ food.

Yum! Brands, the entity that now owns KFC, formed after a spinoff from PepsiCo in 1997 and a merger with Tricon Global restaurants in 2002.

Shares of Yum! Brands are up more than 10 percent year to date, in part fueled by strong earnings this quarter from Taco Bell and KFC’s international locations.