Who Bought KFC from Colonel Sanders
Colonel Harland Sanders sold KFC in 1964 to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey, who formed Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation as the first outside buyer. The sale price was reported at $2 million for the restaurant operations and the franchise rights, a figure documented in business histories and investor profiles of the deal KFC sale history.
Brown and Massey expanded the chain rapidly through franchising, built centralized supply networks, and later sold the company to Heublein Inc. in 1971 for around $285 million, a transaction often cited in timelines of major food acquisitions Heublein acquisition.
KFC Ownership After Colonel Sanders
Heublein, RJR Nabisco, and PepsiCo
Heublein later merged with RJR Nabisco, which then sold KFC to PepsiCo in 1986 for $850 million, making the chicken chain part of PepsiCo's restaurant portfolio alongside Pizza Hut and Taco Bell PepsiCo KFC deal.
PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997, and Tricon later renamed itself Yum! Brands, which remains the parent company of KFC today Yum Brands KFC.
Current KFC Parent Company and Global Structure
Yum! Brands and Yum China
Yum! Brands operates KFC internationally through company-owned restaurants and franchises, while Yum China Holdings runs the brand in mainland China as a separate publicly listed company Yum China structure.
As of the latest public filings, Yum! Brands reports KFC as a core brand in its global restaurant system, with thousands of locations across multiple countries and a ranking among the largest fast-food chicken chains worldwide KFC global ranking.