Yum! Brands

[CityFarmer]

Any significance on the re-organization?

Yum Brands to combine US, int'l business units

YUM Brands Inc said it would combine the US and international divisions of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell as part of a reorganization.

Yum Restaurants' China and India units will remain separate divisions given their "strategic importance and enormous growth potential", the company said.

The reorganization will be effective from Jan 1, 2014. - Reuters

Source: Business Times Breaking News

[CityFarmer]

KFC is still struggling to gain trust from diners...

Diners say not biting on KFC's China revival campaign

[SHANGHAI] Yum Brands Inc's KFC website in China trumpets the slogan "Trust in every bite." That message is part of the company's new "I Commit"campaign intended to reassure customers in its largest market, who have cut back on visits since Chinese media reports a year ago about excessive antibiotic use by a few KFC suppliers.

Interviews with Chinese consumers suggest that rather than soothing concerns, the ads are reminding diners about the food safety scare at the fried-chicken chain, which could undermine Yum's mission to revive sales there.

A survey conducted in November found nearly 40 percent of respondents were still very concerned about antibiotic use in KFC chickens. Yum, which cut off some of its suppliers after the television report on antibiotics, initially predicted safety fears would quickly fade. But sales at its established restaurants have yet to turn around, and it has pushed back the recovery timeline.

Yum spokesman Jonathan Blum said the company had tested the"I Commit" campaign, launched about two weeks ago, and found that it was resonating with consumers. "It's reassuring customers of our quality commitment," Blum said.

A lot is at stake for Yum. It is China's largest Western restaurant operator with roughly 4,500 KFC outlets and the company reaps more than half of its overall operating profit there. - Reuters

Source: Business Times Breaking News

[CityFarmer]

Activists with only one trick, spinoff?

Yum China gets new leadership as activists push for spinoff

Yum Brands Inc announced on Tuesday new leadership for its China division as investor activists lobby for the owner of the KFC and Pizza Hut brands to spin off that business, which is its biggest driver of revenue and profit.
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http://www.todayonline.com/business/yum-...-push-spin

[CityFarmer]

Dining out, is mainly done by youngsters, who are very online. I reckon KFC, and Pizza are not "cheap" in China, comparing with other local casual dining options, and youngsters are usually with lesser budget...

Hungry? China's food delivery apps bite into Yum revival
09 Oct 2015 18:51
[SHANGHAI] As China's economy stutters, growing numbers of diners on a budget are tapping into smartphone applications to snap up meal delivery deals, spelling big trouble for fast food chains like Yum Brands Inc's KFC and Pizza Hut.

People like Li Jiali, a 20-year-old Shanghai student, say they have all the dining options they need nestling in their phones, without needing to venture out of the house. Yum's shares dived this week after it said it's way behind target in a bid to recover from damaging food scandals in China, its top driver for profit and revenue.

Li's Huawei smartphone is packed with cut-price food delivery apps from some of China's biggest internet firms, like Baidu Inc's Waimai, Alibaba-linked Meituan and Tencent-backed Ele.me - meaning "Hungry?". These allow thousands of mom-and-pop restaurants to lure diners previously beyond their marketing reach. "On my phone I have Meituan, Baidu and Ele.me, and I use whichever one has the biggest discount," Ms Li said. Baidu's platform is currently offering the best deals at around 40 per cent off, she said, evidence of a price war raging online.

Yum this week pointed the finger at a "savage battle" under way between apps to explain why China same-store sales grew only 2 per cent in the third quarter, well below the expected 9.6 per cent jump. Yum cut its global forecasts on weakness in China, where the firm has been whipsawed by food safety scandals and marketing missteps over the last few years.

The rise of online apps is a extra blow to Yum, already facing a crowded fast food market, where consultants Euromonitor forecast growth will slow to around 4 per cent by 2019, less than a third of the pace a decade before. "We are experiencing what we believe is a short-term but significant impact of online ordering aggregators entering the casual dining space," Yum's chief financial officer Pat Grismer said on an earnings call after the results.
...
REUTERS

Source: Business Times Breaking News

[CityFarmer]

Yum management finally decided to split...

Yum Brands prepares to separate China business: Bloomberg
20 Oct 2015 13:02
[LONDON] Yum Brands Inc is preparing to separate its Chinese and US businesses in a major restructuring of the fast-food group, Bloomberg reported.
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REUTERS

Source: Business Times Breaking News

[CityFarmer]

Yum will let go the Yum China unit?

China's CIC, KKR consortium in talks to buy control of Yum China unit: sources
20 Apr 2016 11:28
[HONG KONG] A group of investors comprising sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), KKR & Co and Baring Private Equity Asia is in talks to buy a controlling stake in Yum Brands Inc's China unit, people familiar with the matter said.

Yum Brands, owner of the Pizza Hut and KFC fast food chains plans to spin off its 6,900 China restaurants by the end of 2016. The China unit accounts for about half of its parent's total sales and is valued at about US$10 billion, based on its core earnings, bankers and analysts estimate.

The US-based company had initially planned to sell a stake of about 20 per cent in the China operation to anchor investors ahead of a planned listing of the business in New York Exchange and possibly in Hong Kong.

But the deal structure is being reworked as acquiring a minority stake is less appealing for buyout firms, making it difficult for them to secure debt funding to finance the deal. It wasn't immediately clear how much the investor group plans to pay for Yum's China business.

Bloomberg first reported the news and said the deal could vale Yum China at between US$7 billion-US$8 billion.
...
REUTERS

Source: Business Times Breaking News