Kentucky Fried Chicken is leaving its roots behind, so to speak, with the infamous brand set to follow in the recent wake of a handful of companies relocating to Texas.
Among the fast-food chains operated by Yum Brands, KFC is relocating its U.S. corporate headquarters from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas, Yum announced on Tuesday. About 100 corporate workers will move from Louisville to Plano in the next six months as a result, according to the company.
The parent company wants to bring additional teams together with the idea of better serving its customers, franchisees, workers and shareholders, Yum CEO David Gibbs stated.
Yum and the KFC Foundation will maintain offices in Louisville, and Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, also Yum-operated, will stay headquartered in Irvine, California. Another roughly 90 remote workers will be asked to relocate to Plano and Irvine during the next year and a half, the company said.
A number of corporations, including those in the tech industry, have recently relocated to Texas. Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX transferred its incorporation from Delaware to Texas last year and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in January stated the company’s content oversight teams would be moving from California to Texas.
Oracle currently plans to set up its global headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, roughly five years after CEO Larry Ellison announced the tech giant’s HQ move from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas.
Still, KFC is not leaving its home state entirely behind.
In its announcement, Yum offered a nod to “its deep-rooted history in Kentucky,” and said it would provide a $1 million endowment to the College of Business at the University of Louisville to fund Yum-sponsored scholarships for students throughout Kentucky. Additionally, KFC said it planned to build a first-of-its-kind flagship restaurant in Louisville.
KFC was launched more than 75 years ago by Harland Sanders — aka The Colonel — who in 1930 bought a roadside motel in Corbin, Kentucky, and began selling his Southern-style fried chicken to interstate travelers, according to KFC.
