History
The KFC CARIBLA Franchisee Association was formed as the successor of the KFC CARIBLA Marketing Association during a stormy and divided meeting in Louisville, Kentucky in the early 1980’s. Led by Read Miller, as its first president, it was based on the same precepts as other AKFCF regional associations, and its main mission shifted from producing television commercials for the region to supporting and protecting the general interests of its KFC franchisee members.
The role of the KFC CARIBLA Franchisee Association was well accepted and enjoyed the franchisor’s full cooperation (especially at the yearly Caribbean KFC CARIBLA Franchisee Convention) until the PepsiCo era. CARIBLA became a member of the AKFCF’s Domestic Contract Negotiating Committee and later became a leader in the International Contract Negotiating Committee.
Following the contract negotiations, CARIBLA’s more sedate role returned to that of being vigilant in protecting the franchisees general interests. Besides regional meetings, the association’s main activity has been conducting an annual KFC CARIBLA convention. KFC CARIBLA’s annual convention has been run in conjunction with the US national AKFCF Convention since 2003.
In 2006 the KFC CARIBLA Association voted to leverage its activities with the KFC Regional Marketing Fund (RMF) which was formed with YUM’s help in January 2000. A year later, the KFC CARIBLA Franchisee Association decided to follow the AKFCF’s best practice and hire and fill an administrative position in order to better manage the daily and annual duties of the Association.
Because several of CARIBLA’s franchisees had become or were franchisees of other YUM concepts, CARIBLA’s the articles of incorporation were amended in the third quarter of 2009 to allow the membership of other YUM brand franchisees (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver´s) in the region.
The name of the Association was subsequently changed from the KFC CARIBLA Franchisee Association to the CARIBLA Franchisee Association (CFA).
As the association evolves from the KFC CARIBLA Franchisee Association to the CARIBLA Franchisee Association, the group will be able to discuss, monitor, and negotiate common YUM issues allowing the franchisees to have more consistency and fairness in their relationship with YUM across all YUM brands.
In early 2010, and after long negotiations lead by the CARIBLA Franchisee Association with YRI and the UFPC (Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op), the CARIBLA franchisees partnered exclusively with the UFPC for regional supply chain management services. The partnership is designed to mimic the US model with the co-op working side by side with Franchisee leadership from the individual brands. This partnership has proved to be very successful with the financial results surpassing everyone’s expectations.
Strengthening the relationship between the franchisees and the UFPC in 2011, a Distribution and Monitoring Agreement was reached to ensure the effectiveness and long term success of the Supply Chain process. Closing the circle on the SCM function has helped to strengthen the financial health of all the franchisees in the CARIBLA system.
Later in 2012, the Taco Bell CARIBLA franchisees joined the program as well to further consolidate the efforts of the franchisee community.
The CARIBLA Franchisee Association has been a member of AKFCF since October 1986 and became the first international region to join the AKFCF membership.
