Chicken Licken

Chicken Licken is a South African fast-food fried chicken restaurant chain. ... According to a case study published by the Henny Penny Corporation in 2011, Chicken Licken is the "largest non-American-owned fried chicken franchise in the world".

Chicken Licken was founded in South Africa by George Sombonos, the son of a Greek immigrant restaurant owner.[6][8][9] Sombonos learned the restaurant trade in the 1970s at the Dairy Den, his father's restaurant in Ridgeway, a suburb in the southern Inner City region of Johannesburg.[10][11] KFC entered the South African market in 1971.[12] Sombonos bought Chicken Licken's secret fried chicken recipe from the owner of a fast food outlet in Waco, Texas, for US $1,000 while touring the United States in 1972 and introduced it to the Dairy Den.[10][11][13] In 1975 he started serving black customers in their cars when apartheid segregation laws restricted their access to restaurants.[10][14] In 1976 he introduced the drive-through restaurant concept to the Dairy Den after seeing it at Wendy's restaurants in the United States.[10]

His father died in 1980 and Sombonos opened the first Chicken Licken restaurant in 1981 on the site of the Dairy Den.[6][10][14] In 1982 he gave away the first two franchises, based in Soweto and Alexandra, as the company was still unknown and he was unable to sell them.[8][10] Chicken Licken's presence in the townships during apartheid helped it to establish a loyal customer base among black South Africans.[6][8] However, internal resistance to apartheid intensified in the mid-1980s and the company's operations in the townships were adversely affected by civil unrest until 1991.[6] The company's association with the townships has also presented a challenge to growth outside the townships in a changing South Africa.[8] George's daughter Chantal started working at Chicken Licken in 2001,[13][15] and is next in line to succeed him running the family-owned business

Chicken Licken's food is positioned as a more affordable option than that of its main competitors in South Africa, KFC and Nando's.[22][23][24] Chicken Licken was ranked second after KFC in the Fast Food and Restaurant Chains category of the Sunday Times Markinor 2007 Top Brands Survey, followed closely by Nando's which was ranked second in the previous year. The survey was based on consumer interviews and took into account factors such as brand awareness and trust.