Marilynn Pankratz fondly recalls the time Colonel Sanders donned an apron at her Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and taught the staff how to fry chicken according to his Original Recipe. Ask her if KFC's current president, Roger Eaton, would do the same, and she's off: "Roger Eaton and his company don't give a rat's ass," says Pankratz, who has run KFC franchises since 1963 and operates eight in Florida and Louisiana. "They hire marketing guys with blue blazers who tell us what to do with our damn stores. But it's one thing to be behind the big mahogany desk calling the shots and another to be down here in the trenches."
Pankratz is part of a group of franchisees who blame KFC's falling sales on Eaton's decision in early 2009 to emphasize grilled chicken and sandwiches over KFC's bone-in fried fare. Managers at the Yum! Brands (YUM)-owned chain say they're trying to reach health-conscious, on-the-go consumers. Many franchisees say the strategy confuses customers and hurts the brand. Second-quarter revenue at U.S. stores open at least a year fell 7 percent.
In January the KFC National Council & Advertising Cooperative, which represents all U.S. franchisees, sued KFC to gain control of ad strategy. The Association of Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchisees, which speaks for about two-thirds of all U.S. KFC restaurants, has hired Larry Light, once McDonald's (MCD) chief marketing officer, to bolster local marketing independent of headquarters.
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