With the Heublein acquisition, many top managers who had been hired by Brown and Massey were either fired or quit, resulting in much turmoil among the franchisees. By 1976, sales were off 8% and profits were decreasing by 26% per year. To make matters worse, rapid expansion had led to inconsistent quality, poor cleanliness and a burgeoning group of disenchanted franchisees who represented over 80% of total KFC sales. At one point, even white-haired Harland Sanders was publicly quoted admitting that many stores lacked adequate cleanliness while providing shoddy customer service and poor product quality.