Haddon Salt

KFC increased the fee to franchise an H. Salt Esq. Fish & Chips store from $20,000 to $90,000 (equivalent to $665,036 in 2021). The first store to open under the terms of the new agreement was in Louisville, Kentucky. When an H. Salt Esq. store opened in Dayton, Ohio in November, 1969, the store saw a first day total of 2,300 orders of fish and chips.

Salt had 129 franchised stores in operation with annualized sales "in excess of $10 million" (equivalent to $73,892,922 in 2021) when Kentucky Fried Chicken offered him $12 1/2 million dollars in KFC stock (equivalent to $92,366,152 in 2021) and a "joint agreement to open 200 units in seven states".

Salt was an early musician, teaching himself the fiddle and the saxophone "for independence money". He felt he wasn't being paid enough while working for his father. He played "semi-professionally in dance bands from the age of 12" and was a member of the Royal Marines Band Service. He joined the Lake County (California) Symphony Orchestra in 1995, playing violin. Salt owns and plays a Zeta Music Systems electric violin.

In 1975, Salt was president of Mirasol Corporation and a partner in Salt-Ballard Properties. Both businesses were involved in land development in San Rafael, California and Mazatlan, Mexico.

Salt allowed various NCHA Championship competitions to be held on his 350 acre "H. Salt Esquire Ranch" in Sonoma, California. The ranch featured an indoor, full-size horse show arena. In 1974, a Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association competition saw 20 of "the nation's top horses and riders" compete for a total of $20,000 (equivalent to $147,786 in 2021) in prize money.

When the deal was consummated, KFC said they planned to have 1,000 combined company-owned and franchised H. Salt Fish & Chips stores by 1973. KFC newspaper ads offered franchise opportunities, saying:

KFC was not successful in large scale expansion of the H. Salt Esq. chain and sold the brand and business in 1972. Salt explained the brand's failure, saying "They started lowering the standards of the quality of the fish, and so the (sales) volumes of the restaurants went down and people stopped buying franchises, so that was the end of it. And it didn't grow any more."

In 1971, KFC pared back additions to the H. Salt fish and chips menu. Salt said "We tried shrimp... but it spoiled the taste of the fish". After Salt left the company in 1972, KFC once again added shrimp and other seafood to the H. Salt Fish & Chips menu.

In July 1971, KFC president John Y. Brown sold the company to the Connecticut-based Heublein, a packaged food and liquor corporation, for $285 million (equivalent to $1,906,947,412 in 2021). The business model moving forward called for the closing or franchising of 168 H. Salt Esq. outlets. Salt's contract as "chairman of the fish and chips division" would be assumed by Hueblein according to the sale agreement.

"The Colonel's", a new small-scale franchise store format initiated by KFC in 1971 was meant for communities of less than 10,000. The stores sold H. Salt Fish & Chips as well as Kentucky Fried Chicken, hamburgers, milk shakes, soft ice cream and "tasty sandwiches created by Colonel Sanders".

1971 • Gold Medal - California State Exposition and Fair "for excellence in product". H. Salt Esq., Fish and Chips earned the award with a 98.8% rating of "Superior".

In 1970 the footprint of new H. Salt Esq. stores was expanded to include 34 seats. "We found that a lot of people like to sit down to eat, rather than carry out, so we will be taking this approach in the new units".

In the 1970s, Salt developed an interest in cutting horses, becoming a breeder, rider and supporter of the breed and associated equine activities in California and across America. In 1971, Salt's quarter horse "Joe Duhan", ridden by Matlock Rose ranked fifth in the Open Horse category of that year's National Cutting Horse Association World Championship. Salt's horse "Joy Joe", ridden by NCHA Hall of Fame rider Leon Harrel was the 1974 winner of the National Cutting Horse Futurity.

Salt has had a continued interest in improving fish stocks through farming and conservation. In 1970 he said "It is difficult to order good fish in American restaurants". Salt suggested propagation practices in use at the time in Iceland would allow farming codfish "on a sustained yield basis". He also decried the practice of trawling codfish on long voyages saying the practice "impairs the flavor". Salt preferred the practice of line-caught fishing from smaller boats which allowed for faster freezing of a catch. In 1970, Salt said the fishing industry is "in deplorable condition" and was "dying". He helped establish and finance legislative lobby groups to help the industry. He created two "healthy and successful" fisheries, including Sea Fresh Fisheries, Inc. in 1978, based in Borrego Springs, California.

In 1969, KFC heavily promoted H. Salt Esq. franchise opportunities in newspaper and magazine print ads. Comparing KFC's having built 2,400 units since 1957, the company claimed they had "invested capital in opening and operating over 400 (H.Salt Esq.) units in 18 markets". The ads promised franchisees would receive "the proven ingredients they need for profitable operation" with "management and operational guidance by the world's most experienced franchise operators, exclusive fish-fry equipment, a quality-controlled source of Icelandic fillets, secret batter ingredients and expert training to make your employees master fish fryers". Current and former KFC franchisees were given "first crack" at purchasing H. Salt Esq. franchises.

KFC quickly started a buy-back program of franchised H. Salt Esq. stores in late 1969, quickly purchasing previously franchised units. By November, 1969, KFC owned 464 H. Salt Esq. outlets.

By October 1968, there were 45 H. Salt, Esq. locations in Southern California. 44 of those were franchised. 30 additional stores were under construction and a total of 100 were planned "before the end off the year". Salt was referred to as "president of the world's largest chain of fish and chips stores". The company also had offices in Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois.

An H. Salt Esq. franchise in 1968 cost approximately $22,000 (equivalent to $171,432 in 2021). A prospective franchisee had to have $10,000 to $12,000 in cash and could finance the rest. Salt reasoned "A man may walk away from a $5,000 investment if things get tough, but he probably has $10,000 only once in his life and he'll fight to protect it". The average H. Salt Esq. store at the time made $100,000 per year and a franchisee netted an average $25,000 annually before taxes.

Salt discussed the reasons and process involved in his 1968 decision to sell his business to KFC in the New York Times film documentary "The King of Fish and Chips": .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

By 1967, Salt owned two more fish and chip stores, one in Sunnyvale and one in Santa Cruz. They were now named "H. Salt, Esq. Authentic English Fish and Chips Shoppe".

Salt's wife Grace managed their first fish and chip shop in Sausalito, while Salt opened another store in Berkeley. It was reported that the Salts planned "to establish a number of franchised shops in various locations throughout the Bay Area and perhaps even more extensively". By 1966, the Sausalito store was selling fish and chips in a checked paper basket and encouraging customers to "eat fish as you walk along... very common in England".

Salt opened his first fish and chips shop in California in 1965. His business was acquired by the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation in 1969. The sale made Salt the third largest stockholder in KFC, at the time the world's largest fast-food company.

Salt next opened "Salt's English Fish & Chips Shop", initially offering "take home" service at 813 Bridgeway in Sausalito, California in August 1965.

"I came over not simply to start a restaurant, but to introduce America to fish and chips, as grandiose as that dream sounds now". When Salt arrived in America in 1964, Britishers ate an average of 100 pounds of fish per year, while Americans ate only 10 pounds per year. Salt said "The way some of it is handled, I can see why".

Salt entered the restaurant business in America, first purchasing the Griddle, an existing 24-hour diner located at Fourth and Tamalpais in San Rafael, California in November, 1964. Salt sold the Griddle diner in San Rafael in January, 1966.

In 1960, Salt purchased a restaurant in England, sold it in 1964 and emigrated with his wife and three children to California with $10,000. "I decided to bring the business here because all the tourists told me if they had fish and chips in America like I cooked them, I'd have a great business". "Frankly, our family and friends thought my wife Grace and I a bit daft to chuck it all for a dream".

Salt attended private school in England. At 16, he worked at "Salt's Sea Fresh", his father's fish and chip store at the family's seaside resort in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England where he saw enthusiastic acceptance and demand for fish and chips from USAF airmen stationed at nearby RAF East Kirkby station. He spent two years in the Royal Navy. Salt married Grace Lawson in 1949 and the couple emigrated to Canada with $37. After three years and a series of odd jobs, they returned to Skegness where Salt went back to work, helping at his father's fish and chips shop.

Haddon Norman Salt (born 18 October 1928) is a British-American businessman, best known for founding the fast food fish and chips chain H. Salt Esq. Fish & Chips and for acting as the company's brand ambassador, spokesman and symbol. Salt followed his father and grandfather's careers, becoming a master fish cook and purveyor of fish and chips.

Salt was born October 18, 1928, in Stanfree, Derbyshire, England, the only child of Charles Haddon and May (née London) Salt. Diagnosed with a terminal ailment at 8 years old, doctors said nothing could be done. In 2016, Salt said "My parents turned to Christian Science and its primitive healing philosophy by which you could measure the outcome. Now at 88 and healthy, I look at Christianity from a scientific viewpoint."