Chicken Licken is a South African

fast-food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredient ...

fried chicken restaurant A fried chicken restaurant is a fast food restaurant, often a chain, that serves (mainly) fried chicken—usually chunks of chicken, battered or breaded and deep-fried. United States The concept of the fried chicken restaurant originated i ...

chain. The company had a 5% share of South Africa's fast food market in 2010, tying with

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

. 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".

History

Chicken Licken was founded in South Africa by George Sombonos, the son of a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

immigrant restaurant owner. 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 The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

region of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. KFC entered the South African market in 1971. Sombonos bought Chicken Licken's

secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

fried chicken recipe from the owner of a fast food outlet in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

, for

US $ The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

1,000 while touring the United States in 1972 and introduced it to the Dairy Den. In 1975 he started serving

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

customers in their cars when apartheid segregation laws restricted their access to restaurants. In 1976 he introduced the drive-through restaurant concept to the Dairy Den after seeing it at

Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was t ...

restaurants in the United States. His father died in 1980 and Sombonos opened the first Chicken Licken restaurant in 1981 on the site of the Dairy Den. In 1982 he gave away the first two

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

s, based in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

and Alexandra, as the company was still unknown and he was unable to sell them. Chicken Licken's presence in the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

s during

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

helped it to establish a loyal customer base among black South Africans. However,

internal resistance to apartheid Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and Nonviolent resistance, passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action ...

intensified in the mid-1980s and the company's operations in the townships were adversely affected by

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

until 1991. The company's association with the townships has also presented a challenge to growth outside the townships in a changing South Africa. George's daughter Chantal started working at Chicken Licken in 2001, and is next in line to succeed him running the family-owned business.

Locations

Initially, new Chicken Licken outlets were only opened in South African townships. Since the apartheid era ended in 1994, the black middle class has moved out of the townships and the company has changed its focus to expanding in higher income areas and upmarket shopping malls. As of 2013, there are 247 Chicken Licken outlets in South Africa and 12 outlets in Botswana. As of 2012 only 12 of the Chicken Licken outlets in South Africa are owned by the company, including the company's six most successful restaurants. Attempts to establish a presence in other African countries have been unsuccessful. Outlets in Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Mauritius were closed down due to problems with franchisees and the supply of chickens, electricity and foreign exchange for ingredients. Outlets in Lesotho and Swaziland in southern Africa were also closed down due to unpleasant business experiences.

Countries

*Botswana – 18 outlets (2021) *South Africa – 250 outlets (2013)

Branding

In 1981 Sombonos set up Golden Fried Chicken (Pty) Ltd and registered the

trading name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Chicken Licken, one of the names of the

Henny Penny "Henny Penny", more commonly known in the United States as "Chicken Little" and sometimes as "Chicken Licken", is a European folk tale with a moral in the form of a cumulative tale about a chicken who believes that the world is coming to an end ...

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that illustrat ...

which was suggested by a waiter. The restaurants and packaging have been upgraded and the menu is updated annually, but the company logo has remained unchanged since 1981. Chicken Licken's products cater to the tastes of the local population. The company's most popular product is its hot wings introduced in 1992. Registered trademarks in South Africa include: *Soul Food *Full house *Hot wings *Popcorn Chicken Golden Fried Chicken (Pty) Ltd,

trading as Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...

Chicken Licken, owns the trademark for the word ''

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

'' in South Africa with respect to "restaurants, snack bars, cafes, fast food outlets, canteens and roadhouses; services connected with the sale and distribution of foodstuffs and refreshments; catering". Chicken Licken's food is positioned as a more affordable option than that of its main competitors in South Africa, KFC and

Nando's Nando's (; ) is a South African multinational fast casual chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Founded in Johannesburg in 1987, Nando's operates over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries. Their logo (also seen as a sort of ...

. 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. Chicken Licken was a client of the Net#work BBDO advertising agency until 2016 when advertising agenc
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ref name="Koenderman" /> sold its soul. The brand is known for its humorous television commercials. Early Chicken Licken commercials were conceptualised by and starred actor and creative director Joe Mafela. Mafela starred in the Zulu television comedy series ''

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'' (1986–1992), and authored the company's "It's good, good, good, it's good its nice"

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

during the making of a Chicken Licken commercial in 1986. A subsequent

retro style Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

advertising campaign featured Dr CL Phunk, a character played by African-American actor Sydney Hall who dispenses Chicken Licken as a

cure-all A panacea , named after the Greek goddess of universal remedy Panacea, is any supposed remedy that is claimed (for example) to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. It was in the past sought by alchemists in connection with the elixir ...

. In 2007 George Sombonos won the inaugural Creative Circle's Marketer of the Year award for advertising agency clients for "25 Yrs of Soul", a nostalgic commercial featuring the 1983 hit song " Burn Out" by local musician Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse. In 2013 he won the Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award category of the Loerie Awards.

Suppliers

Chicken Licken obtains its chickens from Rainbow Chicken Limited, a JSE-listed company which is South Africa's largest producer of chickens. It has imported chickens from Brazil in the past when Brazilian exporters began undercutting Rainbow and other South African chicken farmers and flooding the market with surplus chicken. It obtains its spices from Robertsons Spices, a

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

brand of herbs and spices. Chicken Licken uses fryers supplied by

, an American manufacturer of cooking equipment used by major fast food companies such as KFC and McDonald's.

Controversies and Lawsuits

Over the years, Chicken Licken has embarked on a hostile campaign to enforce its trademark of the word "soul", aggressively targeting any business, no matter how big or small, that uses the word in its name or as a product. Chicken Licken listed the word "soul" in 1994 as a trademark under the classes of 29 and 30, utilising the word as part of their lexicon in marketing campaigns and product names. The trademark meant that the word could not be used by anyone else in trade to describe certain types of food and drink, but was later extended to include restaurants and food services. Targets of lawsuits over the years have included vegan restaurants, independent stores, cafes, food manufacturers, startups, and guest lodges. In almost all instances, the targets of the legal actions have been small businesses that could be easily intimidated by the R3 billion corporate. The first noted instance to receive widespread publicity occurred when the fast food giant took legal action against Durban-based vegan restaurant Oh My Soul and frozen food manufacturer We Are Food in 2019. Oh My Soul opened its doors in September 2018, serving vegan meals that included "licken" and "vish". Six months after opening, owners Tallulah and Richard Duffin, received a letter of demand from Chicken Licken's attorney Ron Wheeldon alleging infringement of its trademark "soul". Following a three-week negotiation, the Duffins agreed to rebrand their "licken" as "vicken" and their "soul salad" as a "sacred salad", but refused to rebrand their store. Chicken Licken refused to accept this and filed an urgent adjudication, and a week later the Duffins had to appear in the KwaZulu- Natal High Court. The case was heard and a judgement in favour of Oh My Soul Cafe was given on 25 March 2019, with KwaZulu-Natal High Court judge Dhayanithie Pillay ruling that the use of the term "soul" by Chicken Licken was “...philosophically, ideologically and in reality the very antithesis of veganism. Vegans are discerning consumers most unlikely to confuse or associate 'Oh My Soul' with the applicant’s conception of 'soul' in whatever form its trademarks appear". At the same time, Chicken Licken had started legal action against Durban frozen food startup We Are Food, owned by sisters Jane and Amy Weare. The sisters had included in their meal options a clean-eating range which included several vegan "Soul Bowls". Chicken Licken argued that a "soul bowl" was not a recognised dish and that the sisters were in contravention of Chicken Licken's trademark. After seeking legal advice, We Are Food opted to rebrand their Soul Bowls to Vegan Bowls rather than tie themselves up in a legal battle with the fast food giant. Other cases against South African small businesses included legal action taken against Soulsa in 2009, Native Soul, East Coast Soul Kitchen, Soulhouse, Soul Kitchen, Soul Souvlaki, and Tha'phe' Soul Food.

References

External links

Official website
{{chicken chains Restaurants established in 1981 Companies based in Johannesburg Fast-food poultry restaurants Fast-food franchises Fast-food chains of South Africa Botswana cuisine South African companies established in 1981