LOUISVILLE Ky. In a potential departure from its long heritage, KFC Corp. will give franchisees the option of rebranding their stores “Kentucky Fried & Grilled Chicken” as part of the scheduled rollout of a nonfried product now in widespread tests.
The revised moniker already is being used on store facades during tests at what’s believed to be hundreds of units in Colorado Springs, Colo.; San Diego; Oklahoma City; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Austin, Texas. In San Diego alone, some 45 corporate KFC branches are offering Kentucky Grilled Chicken as a no-extra-cost replacement for fried chicken in all meal combos and variety buckets.
After failing repeatedly for more than a decade to find a following for nonfried chicken offerings, the struggling division of Yum! Brands Inc. is pinning its hopes for success this time in part on high-volume cooking gear that would be deployed to all domestic stores by next spring. KFC is marketing the new product as grilled, but the chicken is actually roasted in an automated, high-temperature convection oven. The roaster uses a patented non-stick "grill plate" to stripe the chicken with grill markings. The cooking process is designed to yield tastier, juicier chicken.
The new product uses the same marinated, bone-in chicken as KFC's Original Recipe and Extra Crispy items, but it gets a sprinkling of spices before being cooked in the ovens. About twice the size of an institutional microwave, the oven can cook 80 pieces of chicken at once. A batch requires about 22 minutes of roasting time.
Without breading, the production process is much simpler, operators said, adding that the oven is self-cleaning. The cost of the equipment was not disclosed.
KFC president Gregg Dedrick said the rollout would "contemporize" the brand and mark a defining shift in its 60-year-old identity. Kentucky Grilled Chicken would meet the nutritional needs of an increasingly health-conscious public and attract lapsed customers who had given up the chain's fried offerings, he said.
The Kentucky Grilled Chicken product, depending on the part of chicken, has as much as 50 percent fewer calories and half the sodium, and up to two-thirds less fat than KFC's fried chicken.
KFC has been unable to shake the sales downturn that has stung many quick-service chains in recent months, including its closest but still distant rival in the fried-chicken segment, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. Yum chairman David Novak has been quoted as describing the new chicken product as the "centerpiece of an overall brand transformation."
However, some franchisees are known to be unconvinced and have cited consumers' consistent preference for KFC's fried signatures. That led to the Colonel's Rotisserie Gold line being plucked by the chain in 1996, three years after $100 million was spent on introductory promotions. The Gold products were replaced by Tender Roast items that survive today only in a sandwich or a Twister wrap or as a salad topping.
Kentucky Grilled Chicken has been in development for four years, with the test marketing expanded nationwide over the past 30 months.
Richard Martin contributed to this story.
