The Man Behind Chicken Licken.
George Sombonos founded Chicken Licken in the 1980s, and today, it is South Africa’s most successful local fried chicken brand.
The journey behind the brand was not as straightforward, though. It involved Sombanos travelling the world, fighting lawsuits, and undermining apartheid rules.
George Sombonos, the son of Greek immigrants who came to South Africa during World War II, was born in 1949.
He learned about the industry from a young age. At only seven, he was already serving customers in his father’s café on Saturdays.
When he was 11, he knew the difference between a close corporation and a private limited company, and he was savvy enough to avoid answering the phone when the bank manager called.
After graduating from Potchefstroom Boys High in 1966, he started working full-time at his father’s roadhouse, the Dairy Den, in Ridgeway. By the age of 23, he was running it on his own after his father suffered a heart attack.
In 1972, his father sent him to the US to conduct research, which involved tasting 12 hamburgers and 20 chicken pieces daily. In Waco, Texas, Sombonos tasted the best chicken he had ever had.
He invited the owner of the chicken outlet to dinner, who finally agreed to sell the recipe for $5,000 after Sombonos pestered him enough. However, he only had $1,000 in traveller’s cheques, so he had to settle for a different, untested recipe.
When he got home, he secretly mixed up a batch of the coating and hid it under his bed before swapping it with the one used at his father’s roadhouse.
It was such a hit with customers that he replaced the recipe used at the roadhouse, and over the next four years, turnover grew from R25,000 a month to R200,000.
In the ‘70s, with apartheid still in full swing, he decided to serve black customers in their cars. From this time, black people became his most loyal customer base and the backbone of his business.
Some of his earliest customers were notable public figures, such as Winnie Mandela, Tokyo Sexwale, and Kaizer Chiefs’ Kaizer Motaung.
His innovation didn’t stop there. In 1976, he introduced the drive-through restaurant concept to the Dairy Den after seeing it at Wendy’s restaurants in America.
In 1980, tensions rose between him and his father when Sombonos renegotiated the roadhouse lease and signed it in his own name. His father was in Greece at the time, and refused to speak to him for three months afterwards.
Fortunately, they were able to reconcile their relationship shortly before his father’s death later that year.
Chicken Licken
In 1981, Sombonos was ready to launch a company called Golden Fried Chicken when one of his waiters suggested that he name it Chicken Licken. He set up the first location on the site of the Dairy Den.
It did so well that in 1982, after he had opened franchises in Soweto and Alexandra, KFC sued him for trademark infringement.
KFC argued that Chicken Licken sounded too much like its slogan, “It’s finger-lickin’ good.” The judge disagreed.
The transition from shopkeeper to company executive wasn’t easy for him. He had to learn about phones, hire a receptionist, and operate the switchboard, all without an accountant.
Chicken Licken was little more than a one-man operation, a fact that he hid with different ruses. Callers who were put through to Mike in marketing or Peter, the accountant, spoke to Sombanos without knowing it.
In 1986, Sombonos hired an ad agency, which suggested using Joe Mafela, an actor in the popular TV Zulu comedy series Sgudi ‘Snaysi.
After a few drinks, Mafela started tinkling on a piano and came up with what became the popular jingle for over a decade: “S’good, good, good, S’good, it’s nice.”
Chicken Licken, initially seen as a township brand and beloved by millions, faced declining sales after many customers moved to the suburbs post-1994.
Despite landlords’ fears that a large black customer base would devalue properties, Sombonos expanded into these areas, eventually attracting white customers.
In 1994, Chicken Licken also listed the word “soul” as a trademark, which was enforceable against other restaurants and food vendors in South Africa.
Over the years, Chicken Licken has engaged in a hostile campaign against businesses that use the word in their name or product, notably losing a lawsuit against Oh My Soul Cafe, a vegan restaurant, in 2019.
His daughter, Chantal Sombonos-Van Tonder, started working at Chicken Licken in 2001, where he groomed her to take over the business.
In 2007, the business was ranked second after KFC in the Fast Food and Restaurant Chains category of the Sunday Times Markinor 2007 Top Brands Survey.
By 2013, Chicken Licken, with 259 outlets, sold more than 400,000 chickens and five million hot wings a month.
Sombonos continued to visit the United States every few years to keep up with changing tastes. He never let go of his roots.
Sombonos passed away at 67 in Johannesburg, but his business continues to thrive under the management of his daughter, who has carried on the family tradition as CEO.
Since taking over, she has earned numerous accolades, including 49 Loeries, a Grand Prix, eleven Gold awards, and both the ‘Brand of the Year’ and ‘Brand Representative of the Year’ awards for 2019.
“Chicken Licken is my life, and I am as passionate about it as my father. He once told me that if you believe in something, you should be willing to die for it,” she said.
As of last year, Chicken Licken had 286 outlets across South Africa, making it one of the biggest fast-food retailers and the largest non-American fried chicken brand in the country.
