As one of the most talked-about figures, Colonel Sanders has built a significant fortune. In this article, we dive deep into the assets and career highlights.
What was Colonel Sanders's Net Worth?
Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Harland Sanders. (via Getty)
In 1906, Sanders went to New Albany, Indiana to live with his uncle, who worked for a streetcar company. There, he got a job as a conductor. Sanders went on to enlist in the US Army by falsifying his date of birth; he served as a wagoner in Cuba before being honorably discharged in early 1907. Sanders then moved to Sheffield, Alabama, where his uncle was now working for the Southern Railway. His uncle helped get him a job as a blacksmith's assistant. About two months later, Sanders moved to Jasper, Alabama, where he landed a job cleaning out ash pans from Northern Alabama Railroad trains. He soon progressed to the position of steam engine stoker, which he did for close to three years. Still on the railroad, Sanders became a laborer with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1909. After that, he became a steam engine stoker on the Illinois Central Railroad.
While working on the railroad, Sanders studied law by correspondence through La Salle Extension University. He later began to practice law in Little Rock, Arkansas, although his legal career ended after three years when he got into a courtroom brawl with his client. Due to that incident, Sanders was forced to move back in with his mother in Henryville, Indiana. He subsequently worked on the Pennsylvania Railroad. After the family moved to Jeffersonville, Indiana, Sanders landed a job selling life insurance for Prudential. He was eventually fired from that job due to insubordination. Sanders subsequently got a sales job with Mutual Benefit Life. In 1920, he established a ferry boat company that operated a boat on the Ohio River between Jeffersonville and Louisville. A couple years later, he became secretary at the Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Indiana. After resigning within a year, Sanders cashed in his ferry boat company shares and established a business manufacturing acetylene lamps. However, the business failed. Sanders went on to work as a salesman for the Michelin Tire Company in Winchester, Kentucky.
Harland Sanders was born on September 9, 1890 in Henryville, Indiana as the eldest of three children of Margaret and Wilbur. Raised in a strict Christian household, he attended the Advent Christian Church with his family. After Sanders's father died in 1895, his mother began working at a tomato cannery while he looked after his siblings. By the time he was seven, Sanders had reportedly become skilled at cooking vegetables. In 1902, his mother remarried to William Broaddus, and the family moved to Greenwood, Indiana. The following year, Sanders dropped out of school and went to live and work on a farm nearby. He then took a job painting horse carriages in Indianapolis. At the age of 14, Sanders worked as a farmhand in southern Indiana.
Also known as Harland Sanders, he died on December 16, 1980 at the age of 90. He also served as KFC's brand ambassador and symbol. He did not serve in the military but earned an honorary title of a Kentucky Colonel. He founded KFC during the Great Depression and developed his secret recipe and method for cooking chicken in a pressure fryer. He focused on franchising his chicken throughout the U.S. In 1964 Sanders sold the company to investors for $2 million. He was 73 years old at the time. That's the same as around $15 million today after adjusting for inflation. He stayed on as a brand ambassador and retained control of operations in Canada.
Colonel Sanders was an American businessman and entrepreneur, best known as the founder and face of the fast food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. At the time of his death,Colonel Sanders' net worth was$3.5 million. That's the same as around $10 million today after adjusting for inflation. Perhaps not as much as you'd guess considering the fact that today KFC's annual revenue tops $23 BILLION.
In 1924, Sanders met the general manager of Standard Oil of Kentucky, who invited him to run a service station in Nicholasville. He did so until the station closed in 1930 amid the Great Depression. Subsequently, Sanders was offered his own service station in North Corbin, Kentucky by the Shell Oil Company; he was given the station rent free in return for paying Shell a percentage of his sales. From the roadside stop, which eventually added a restaurant, Sanders began serving chicken dishes and various other meals. In 1935, he was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Sanders's local popularity grew over the years. Although his North Corbin restaurant burned down in 1939, he rebuilt it in Asheville, North Carolina as a restaurant and motel combo. By the summer of 1940, Sanders had perfected his "secret" recipe using a pressure fryer to cook chicken. When tourism declined during World War II in late 1941, he was forced to close his Asheville location. Sanders then worked briefly in Seattle before working in cafeterias in Tennessee.
In summary, the total wealth of Colonel Sanders reflects strategic moves.
Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.
