From Small Beginnings To Big Brands

The secret receipt - Chicken Licken

George never gave up on his childhood dream of one day owning a chain of fast-food restaurants and there isn't anybody who's laughing at him now.

"It's good, good, good, it's good it's nice". This is a melody that is synonymous with a company called Chicken Licken, which is the biggest grilled chicken franchise in Africa that is 100% South African.

I once watched an interview of the founder of Chicken Licken, on a CNBC Africa video clip, from the "Captains of the Industry" show, I was amazed to discover that Chicken Licken still struggled to get trading space in the traditionally white shopping malls, just because Chicken Licken still had a stigma of being a township chicken franchise. Apparently, these malls still feared that a 'township franchise' would bring with it criminal elements into these malls. At least that is now changing, thanks to the unwavering determination of its founder. There is now even a drive-thru (Fly Thru) in the Sandton area.

This is the story of the famous Chicken Licken that was written by Tracy O'Brien, who was the Chicken Licken Media Manager:

Chicken Licken founder, George Sombonos, was the son of a very poor Greek tea-room and restaurant owner. Little George had a dream to make it big one day and as he grew older, he would tell people he wanted to own a fast food chain. They laughed at him

He did his apprenticeship in the fast food business in the 1970s managing his father's roadhouse restaurant, the Dairy Den in Ridgeway, south of Johannesburg. He describes it as the apprenticeship of hell.

In 1972, his father bought him an airline ticket to the US on condition he went to see his aunt in Greece on his way back. This trip was the catalyst for George's dream. It set him on the road to developing the largest, home grown fried chicken, quick-service restaurant business. It is now the world's largest, non-American fried chicken franchise.

Finding the winning recipe

"I went on the trip to America with mad enthusiasm," says Sombonos. "I would buy trade journals to learn about the restaurant business, taste 12 hamburgers and 20 pieces of chicken every day until one day, in Waco, Texas; I tasted the best chicken ever. I invited the owner of the chicken outlet out for dinner that evening and asked him for the recipe. It took a lot of convincing but the next morning he agreed to sell it to me for US$5 000. I didn't have that kind of money and eventually he accepted my last $1 000 in traveller's cheques for something I hadn't even tested. It was a huge leap of faith. He could have sold me a salt and pepper mix."

Back at home, Sombonos mixed the spice recipe under his bed and swapped it for the existing chicken coating recipe at his father's roadhouse. Sales increased and the turnover shot up from R25 000 a month to R200 000 a month over a one-year period.

"One day my uncle said to my father: "Your chicken tastes fantastic - what have you done to it? And his father replied in his thick, Greek accent: "That little 'bastard' must have done something – I'll 'kill' him". The winning, top-secret recipe was given to spice giant Robertson's Spices and they have been mixing it in vast quantities for Chicken Licken ever since. George said – not even his wife knew the recipe.

At the age of 23, George started running the Dairy Den on his own after his father was weakened by a heart attack. It was around this same time, 1972, that KFC opened its first store in South Africa.

In 1975, Sombonos started serving black people in their cars even though it was in contravention of the apartheid legislation. He said: "I felt I was giving them back their dignity.' When his father queried it, his grandfather said: "Leave him – you just count the money". This move earned George the loyalty of the millions of customers who made him what he is today.