Kentucky Fried Chicken is leaving Kentucky

Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of the Commonwealth’s greatest exports. Now, Yum! Brands is exporting the KFC corporate offices. How does Texas Fried Chicken sound?

Yum! announced on Tuesday that it will be moving 100 jobs from the KFC corporate offices in Louisville to Plano, Texas. There, KFC will be joined with Pizza Hut, while two other Yum! brands — Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill — will operate together in Irvine, California.

Colonel Harland Sanders turned 11 herbs and spices into a worldwide phenomenon and it all started at his cafe in Corbin, KY. You can still visit the museum at the original site and order a bucket of chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken was rebranded to KFC in 1991. That rebrand bites even harder with 100 employees leaving its home state.

“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.”

Sadly, it’s not the first time in 2025 that one of our state’s proudest products took a significant economic hit. Brown-Foreman is closing its barrel-making cooperage in Louisville. By April, 210 workers will be out of a job. That is also when Stitzel-Weller will be shutting down its bottling operation in the Shively neighborhood, eliminating approximately 33 jobs.

The move by KFC is similar to the one made by Papa John’s five years ago. The pizza chain created a new HQ in Atlanta and moved much of its business to the Peach State but kept its corporate HQ in Louisville with about 550 quality control employees. Kentucky will no longer be the corporate headquarters of Kentucky Fried Chicken, but Yum! will keep its corporate offices in Louisville with about 560 employees.

Allow me to take off my reporter hat for a moment to giggle. As a parting gift, they’re giving $1 million for scholarships to the UofL Business School. They also promised to stay involved in the community by committing to a “first-of-its-kind flagship restaurant.” Thanks for the gesture, I guess?

The largest city in the state of Kentucky is slipping and this isn’t a new trend. The city’s leaders have been scrambling to recover for a half-decade and they don’t appear to be making any traction at all.

Got thoughts? Continue the conversation on KSBoard, the KSR Message Board. Join KSR+ and pay $1 a week for your first year.