KFC rebuilds its restaurants and menu to win back chicken fans

KFC is rebuilding its business from the ground up to reclaim its place at the top of a crowded chicken market. The company is testing a new restaurant concept, launching a refreshed menu and bringing back Colonel Sanders in advertising, as fast-growing rivals such as Raising Cane’s, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken & Wings win over younger diners.

The brand’s position has slipped in recent years. In 1999, KFC held 39.7 percent of the U.S. limited-service chicken segment, according to MarketWatch, citing Mark Kalinowski, CEO of Kalinowski Equity Research. By 2025, Chick-fil-A led the segment with roughly 45 percent share, followed by Popeyes at 11.5 percent, Raising Cane’s at 11 percent and KFC at 10 percent. In 2025, Raising Cane’s pushed KFC out of the top three U.S. chicken restaurants by sales, a list still led by Chick-fil-A and Popeyes.

Catherine Tan-Gillespie, a KFC veteran who joined the company in 2015, became president of KFC U.S. in April 2025. She said the brand still holds a strong emotional connection with consumers. « It was so obvious that there’s this huge latent love for the brand. We’re an American icon, » she said. She described the loss of market share as the trigger for urgent action to make the chain more relevant, easier to use and more distinctive.

The turnaround has been developing for several years. KFC experimented with new chicken concepts, beverages and brand approaches, and in 2024 it launched Saucy, an Orlando-based concept centered on chicken tenders and sauces. The bright pink restaurant tested 11 new sauce flavors, including cayenne barbecue, chimichurri ranch and sweet teriyaki. Since the first Saucy opened, the concept has expanded to 16 additional restaurants. KFC calls these locations a learning lab for understanding what today’s customers want, and several of the custom sauces have joined the company’s global sauce pantry.

Christophe Poirier, KFC’s chief concept officer, said Saucy produced several lessons. « One, you can explore—the world is ready. Second, if you stick to what is expected, that’s the highway to the graveyard of brands. And third, new generations of consumers are very much mavericks in the ways they experience brands, » he said. In June, KFC announced a next-generation global menu with more than 20 sauces and new “Dunked” tenders, wings and sandwiches, all coated in sauce.

The company is also reimagining its restaurant design with the global agency JKR. The newest prototype opened in Dubai, where a bright red facade with electric white lights, three large archways and a two-story video screen mark the building. Inside, a stark, almost brutalist construction is paired with two-tone red furniture and a neon wall mural. KFC plans to begin testing this restaurant concept of the future on October 31.

The results so far suggest the strategy is gaining traction. KFC endured seven straight quarters of falling U.S. same-store sales from about early 2024 to mid-2025. The figure turned positive in the third quarter of 2025 and has stayed positive since, including a 2 percent gain in the second quarter of 2026, which ended in June. The rise of chicken as a category has helped the entire segment. Circana reported that chicken restaurants saw traffic rise 20 percent over the year ending in September 2026, compared with 2019, while total quick-service restaurant traffic fell 4 percent. Datassential found chicken was the strongest-performing segment across quick-service and fast-casual restaurants in 2025, with units up 4.6 percent and sales up 4 percent across 28 brands.

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Connor Quincy

Technology Reporter

Connor Quincy covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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