President’s Report

THE POWER OF OPPORTUNITY

By Brandon Robertson

Well, “normally” I would be writing this article to thank you for allowing me to serve this past year as president, as I pass the torch to our incoming 1st VP, Keith Cole. However, as has been the trend recently, nothing is normal. We just finished our spring board meeting in Orlando, Florida and it was so great to see so many friends and KFC family members in person (versus through a computer screen.) We had a great meeting and discussion about challenges that face us as franchisees today. The board voted to change the term of the AKFCF officers from ending at the end of June to concluding at the end of March. The result of that decision is two-fold. On the one hand, it will provide for a more seamless transition in leadership immediately following Convention. This gives the incoming president a few extra months to plan his or her year and to begin working on the next year’s Convention. Second, it means you are stuck with me for an extra nine months. I am extremely excited to get to see many of you this fall at the regional meetings and to serve as president at a live Convention in Orlando. I will tell you more about that later.

Serving as president this past year has been interesting to say the least. We have adapted to so many new challenges and circumstances. We went from closing our lobbies for fear of spreading the virus to closing them because we can’t hire enough staff to keep them open, or in some cases even keep the drive-thru open for our normal hours. We went from more supply than we could sell in the early days of the pandemic to not enough supply to sell anything with advertising behind it. And for the first time ever, we had a nationwide effort to sell less instead of more. I never thought I would see the day we would take down our POP and sell everything at regular price to slow down the business. It’s easy to blame and complain about the impact government stimulus has had and is continuing to have on this situation, but I would ask you also remember the good that has come from those very same government stimulus efforts. We were able to keep our businesses prosperous during what could have been a disaster for many of us. And, our customers had the ability to continue trading with us and enjoying our great food during a time when they needed a little normal in their lives. Of course, this does not mean we shouldn’t be operating to get the workforce back to “normal,” but sometimes, you must take the good with the bad and make the best of it. If there is one thing I know our KFC family is good at, it is making lemonade out of lemons. I know we will band together and survive these difficult times, just as we have many times before.

There is a new kind of meeting experience being planned right now; it’s called the “RGM Connect.” The AKFCF and KFC have partnered to put on a celebration of our restaurant general managers. I am extremely excited to see the show. Justin Stewart and Monica Rothgery have worked with the teams at AKFCF and the KFCC to put together what I think is an amazing event in a short amount of time. Spring meetings have not happened for two years and Justin was adamant that we have a virtual, nationwide spring RGM celebration. His hard work and determination is paying off. I can’t thank him and Monica enough for being the champions of this and working hard to make it come to life for our general managers.

Believe it or not, we have already had our first Convention planning meeting for 2022. I combined the Convention planning meeting with our spring board meeting in Orlando at the Gaylord Palms Resort. The hotel’s $150-million renovation is almost complete, and we are going to have an amazing Convention in the Sunshine State. There will be a lot more information on the Convention in the next issue, but the theme has been decided: “The Power of Opportunity.” I can’t wait to see you all there, in person! n

Serving as president this past year has been interesting to say the least. We have adapted to so many new challenges and circumstances. We went from closing our lobbies for fear of spreading the virus to closing them because we can’t hire enough staff to keep them open, or in some cases even keep the drive-thru open for our normal hours.