Tag: KFC

Latest Headlines

Yum! Brands wins trademark case in Philippines!!!; Kindred attorney bolts for a competitor, and a KFC beanie promo on Twitter captivates New Zealand

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 2:39 p.m.

Jolibee YumYumYUM has won a trademark case in the Philippines brought by fast-food chain Jollibee, which sought to block the Louisville company from using its business name in the country. The government’s trademark office said the word “yum” is a commonly-used interjection, and the chain’s “Yum!” logo employs an exclamation point and a different font — in caps-and-lower case — that distinguish the mark from Jollibee’s (Interaksyon). The Philippines is a potentially big market: its population is nearly 100 million.

HUMANA CEO Bruce Broussard knew his personal and work lives were out of whack after his mother died in a car accident. “I regretted the time I was not able to spend with family members. I also regretted that I defined life success as career success,” Broussard told Georgetown University graduates at their Saturday commencement ceremonies. The school gave him an honorary doctorate in humane sciences (The Hoya). Brossard, CEO since 2013, attended Texas A&M and the University of Houston.

David Pearce
Pearce

KINDRED: David Pearce, chief counsel for Kindred’s home division for 11 years, has been named senior vice president and chief compliance officer at home health provider Amedisys of Baton Rouge, La. (Home Health Care News).

KFC: It was the competition that captivated a nation on Twitter, according to Spinoff magazine: The busy working world of New Zealand ground to a halt last week as one tweet from a KFC New Zealand social media person — featuring three, identical, crimson beanies — got 6,800 retweets and a 16-piece bucket full of favorites. “This is the oral history of the greatest online giveaway in New Zealand history, as told by key players” (Spinoff).

PAPA JOHN’S: In the Seattle area, Continue reading “Yum! Brands wins trademark case in Philippines!!!; Kindred attorney bolts for a competitor, and a KFC beanie promo on Twitter captivates New Zealand” →

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Ford summer factories shutdown whacked in half; Calif. taqueria gives KFC the finger, plus: how to profit from Taco Bell rival Chipolte’s misery

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:59 a.m.

2017 Super Duty truck
The Kentucky Truck Plant will retool this summer to build the new 2017 Super Duty F-series.

FORD‘s auto and truck factories in Louisville will shut down for only one week this summer vs. the usual two, because of unexpectedly strong demand for SUVs, and the need to gear up for launching the new 2017 Super Duty F-series truck later this year.

The company says it will crank out an extra 22,000 SUVs at the Louisville Assembly Plant and at two other sites in Chicago and Oakville, Ontario. Through May, SUVs sales totaled 325,475, a 9% increase from a year ago, including Escape, Edge, Explorer, Flex and Expedition. The 4,700-employee Assembly Plant closing will be the week of July 4. Ford had disclosed the SUV production increase to investors in its second-quarter production guidance April 28.

This is the fourth consecutive year the automaker has trimmed its summer shutdowns (press release).

The Kentucky Truck Plant employs 5,100, but that figure is growing substantially. In December, Ford said it would add 2,000 jobs and invest $1.3 billion there to produce the new F-series; it originally opened in 1969. The factory already produces F-250 and F-550 Super Duty pickups, plus Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator trucks. More about Ford’s history and operations in Louisville.

KFC: The owner of the El Taqueria Amigo restaurant in southern California has sued KFC after the chain started using the Spanish-language slogan, “para chuparse los dedos,” which translates to “suck your fingers” or Continue reading “Ford summer factories shutdown whacked in half; Calif. taqueria gives KFC the finger, plus: how to profit from Taco Bell rival Chipolte’s misery” →

Latest Headlines

Amazon wants Texas tax cut, as Trump slams Bezos anew; Haier paid $125M for Appliance Park, and much ado about new KFC pulled-porker down under in Oz

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 9:34 a.m.

AMAZON is seeking tax breaks for a proposed distribution center in Houston that would lower the retailer’s taxes there to 65% for 10 years, starting Jan. 1; Harris County officials meet today to consider whether to call a public meeting on the company’s request. The $136 million facility would create 1,000 jobs and construction would start in the third quarter (Houston Chronicle). Amazon already has at least one center in Houston; it opened in 2014. In the Louisville area, it employs 6,000 at two distribution centers. What it’s like to work in one of the centers.

Presumptive GOP White House nominee Donald Trump has renewed his attack on The Washington Post and owner Jeff Bezos, after the paper called him out for trying multiple times yesterday to quietly link President Obama to this weekend’s devastating attack in Orlando. Trump has revoked the paper’s press access to his campaign, saying Bezos is using the newspaper as his personal mouthpiece to gain tax advantages for Amazon. Bezos bought the paper from its long-time owners, the Grahams, for $250 million in 2013; he owns it separately from Amazon (The Verge). Also, Amazon is getting ready to roll out its second annual Prime Day, a special 24-hour discount extravaganza for Prime members that last year exceeded its Black Friday results. It was held in July last year; the company hasn’t set a date this year yet (Street Insider).

FORD has been much less visible than competitors in forging deals with Silicon Valley partners, raising questions about whether it’s getting left behind in the race for self-driving cars and other innovations. Talks with Google this year went nowhere, while Fiat Chrysler has already forged a relationship with that technology giant. Meanwhile, Ford’s experiments with on-demand shuttles and e-bikes have been overshadowed by General Motors’ Maven car-sharing and Toyota’s alliance with Uber (Hybrid Cars).

GE: We now know what Haier paid GE’s 61-year-old Appliance Park: $125 million, according to Jefferson County Clerk Office records reviewed by Business First. Overall, Haier paid $5.6 billion for the home appliances division in a deal completed last week.

Pulled Pork Burger
Exhibit A.

KFC: Some customers are confused and angry — and even angry about that anger — after the fast food restaurant famous for fried chicken launched a $6 limited edition burger with that other white meat: pork. The sandwich of pulled pork, coleslaw and barbecue sauce on a brioche bun is available across KFC restaurants in at least Australia starting today for the next four weeks (Emmanorris Blog and EFTM ). The Ozzie KFC division posted that video at the top of this page and the photo on the left.

News about the sandwich is spreading across Twitter, with many outraged or at least annoyed over the outrage:

Boulevard sees the Australian Mafia-of-one at work: Greg Creed has been leading a KFC makeover since become CEO of corporate parent Yum in January 2015.

TACO BELL: Our foreign news story of the day is about the Mexican chain’s move into Brazil next month in the megalopolis of Sao Paulo, just in time for the summer Olympics: “Taco Bell desembarca no Brasil ainda no segundo semestre” (Clica Piaui). For those who don’t speak Portuguese, Google Translate is your friend. Facing an increasingly saturated U.S. fast-food market, the Yum unit is ramping up overseas openings, expanding to 1,000 locations by 2020 from about 280 now (Bloomberg).

PAPA JOHN’S: Three men armed with a gun and a baseball bat robbed a driver at 10 p.m. Sunday night in Magnolia, Del., taking money and his cellphone (Delaware Online).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE is hiring in Knoxville and Alcoa, Tenn., at a job fair today (WVLT).

In other news, the newly opened Speed Cinema this weekend will present this year’s Sundance Short Film Festival Tour (Insider Louisville). And on Wall Street, U.S. stocks traded lower again right after the opening bell (Google Finance).

Food and Dining

Review: At this KFC in Orlando, the server was ‘definitely the most miserable’

An occasional look at reviews given to restaurants owned by Papa John’s, Texas Roadhouse, and Yum.

The location: 6217 International Drive, Orlando, Fla. The headline: “Lunch after wetnwild.” Number of stars: two out of five. The customer: TripAdvisor user loubiehigh of the U.K.’s Preston.

Anton EgoThe review: Although we don’t eat a lot of fast food at home, we do love the occasional KFC! Not in the US!!! The burger my husband had was half the size of a “zinger” which he would normally have. The popcorn chicken was better than home because the coating was more akin to the classic KFC chicken coating. Boys had the mash and gravy, and said the gravy was better than home, but disappointed you couldn’t buy this on its own. Wedges were good. Menu seemed limited; advertised some really hot chicken on the outside windows, but this didn’t seem available in the shop. Of all the Orlando residents/workers we came across the server here was definitely the most miserable. Chicken was over greasy.

Illustration, inset: That’s Anton Ego, the merciless restaurant critic in Pixar’s delightful 2007 “Ratatouille.” Here’s the trailer:

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Ball State defends $3.3M from Schnatter-Koch; more Humana-Aetna op; Ford GT back at Le Mans, and Brits say KFC server in Fla. was ‘most miserable’

Latest headlines, focused on big employers; updated at 4:37 p.m.

Ford GT Le Mans
Ford’s new GT faces Ferraris and other top rivals at famous French race again. Thousands have applied to buy one of the $400,000 supercars.

PAPA JOHN’S: Ball State University deflected concerns over accepting a $3.3 million donation from Papa John’s founder John Schnatter and the Charles Koch Foundation, to promote free enterprise, saying it wouldn’t subvert academic freedom (Star-Press). The March donation is only the latest from the two men.

Schnatter and Koch
Schnatter and Koch.

They gave $12 million to the University of Kentucky in December and $6.3 million to the University of Louisville in March 2015, in both cases also to establish free-enterprise institutes. Administrators there offered similar assurances about academic independence. But a contract UK signed and Schnatter’s views on capitalism point to a possibly sharp collision of goals. Schnatter graduated from Ball State in Muncie, Ind., in 1983, and started his pizza company the following year.

GE: In Appliance Park, new owner Haier is getting a facility that’s completely rebuilt itself from years of outsourcing and offshoring,” said John Shook, CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, which advised long-time GE owner in trimming management and tweaking production. “GE Appliances is a lean producer with an engaged leadership that has done an excellent job involving the union workforce to build in quality on the front lines (Benzinga). China-based Haier completed the $5.6 billion deal a week ago today; Appliance Park has about 6,000 employees making refrigerators and other home appliances.

HUMANA and planned acquirer Aetna face increased opposition to the $37 billion deal — as do merger partners Anthem and Cigna — from a new coalition of consumer and medical groups worried about the consolidations,  which would shrink the healthcare insurance market to three major insurers from five (CT Mirror). Aetna officials have said recently the deal is still on track to close in this year’s second half. About Humana.

Edsel Ford II
Ford

FORD: Unfortunately misnamed Edsel Ford II leaves tomorrow for Le Mans to watch the new Ford GT return to the legendary race against Ferraris, Porches and Aston Martins, starting Sunday. Ford, 67, a great-grandson of the company’s founder, visited the track with his father, Henry Ford II, in 1966 when he was a teen to witness the Ford GT40 place 1-2-3. “Fifty years have gone by fast,” he said. “Seems like yesterday I was there with Dad” (Detroit Free Press). The GT racing is based on the all-new $400,000 supercar unveiled in January. Le Mans history. Edsel Ford is a consultant to the company and member of its board of directors. At this year’s annual meeting, he faced the most resistance from shareholders re-electing directors, apparently over the $650,000 Ford paid him as a consultant. About Ford in Louisville.

Watch video of the 1966 race, and the new car:

KFC: Job recruiters want to talk to you if you have a “friendly attitude and positive demeanor” at an open house on Thursday (CraigsList). Elsewhere in Maryland, firefighters responded to a mulch fire early Saturday afternoon that spread to the exterior of a KFC; no injuries were reported. Why was there mulch so close? The news report is silent on that important question (Carroll County Times). More about KFC corporate parent Yum.

In top culture news, Broadway’s Hamilton won 11 Tonys last night, including best musical — just shy of the record of 12 won by The Producers. Tickets are impossible to get, as we discovered when we found one for a whopping $7,075 in a travel story last month.

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Ali chose his Cave Hill site, but location kept secret for now; security a long-term problem

The late prize-fighter and Louisville native personally picked out his Cave Hill Cemetery gravesite a decade ago, challenged only by deciding which plot would be best at the 300-acre burial grounds in the Highlands.

Muhammad Ali
Ali in 1967.

Ali will have a modest marker after his burial tomorrow, following Muslim tradition and his wish to remain humble despite his outsized life — in sharp contrast to the more ornate cemetery art on many of the other 130,000 occupied plots there. Family spokesman Bob Gunnell and Cave Hill would not say exactly where the grave will be, according to the Associated Press. But it’s certain to become a pilgrimage site for worldwide fans of the humanitarian, raising the cemetery’s already high profile — and security concerns as well. Ali will join a who’s-who of governors, business leaders and other Kentucky residents there. The most-visited grave is that of KFC founder Harland Sanders.

Ali died last Friday in Phoenix, where he lived most of the year. He was 74 and had been battling Parkinson’s disease for decades.

Cave Hill traces its history to 1846, when the mayor and city council set out to develop what soon became a “garden” cemetery, which by then was a concept gaining popularity in major U.S. cities. It’s unclear what measures will be taken to keep Ali’s grave undisturbed. Entering the cemetery isn’t easy, however; it’s surrounded by a high brick wall topped in places with razor wire, and the entry gates at Broadway and Baxter and on Grinstead Drive are monitored by security cameras and a guard. (See a map of Cave Hill.)

Securing Ali’s body has already been an issue; gossip site TMZ reported that officers with the Metro Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff were stationed outside the A.D. Porter and Sons Funeral Home, which is coordinating some of this week’s events.

Elvis
Bodynap target.

At other cemeteries, guarding burial sites of celebrities has been a problem. Someone stole Charlie Chaplin’s body from his Switzerland grave and held it for ransom, the Associated Press says. Elvis Presley was first buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis in 1977, but his family moved him to his Graceland estate after three men were accused of plotting to steal it. Authorities foiled a plan to steal Abraham Lincoln’s body at Illinois’ Oak Ridge Cemetery and hold it for ransom in 1876, nine years after he died. Ultimately, his coffin was moved 17 times, mostly due to numerous reconstructions of his tomb and fears for the safety of his remains.

Celebrities’ graves can be a potentially valuable tourist attraction. Continue reading “Ali chose his Cave Hill site, but location kept secret for now; security a long-term problem” →