Word: kfc
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants now number more than 12,000 in 110 countries outside China, says Graham Allan, president of Yum Restaurants International (YRI). Of those stores, 85% are owned and run by franchisees. Operating profit more than doubled, from $186 million in 1998 to $407 million in 2006. International profits drove the stock price up 82% over 10 years. Yum's largest markets overseas include Australia and the U.K. Pizza Hut ranks as the most trusted food-service brand in India, and Russia will soon greet the Colonel through a partnership with top chicken chain Rostik...
...then there's China, where Yum is so big that it has reported earnings separately since 2005. Profits from Yum's stores in China, Thailand and Taiwan popped 37% in 2006, while all other international profits grew 11%, domestic a mere 3%. A KFC opened nearly every day in China last year, and KFCs and Pizza Huts now number more than 2,300. (McDonald's has about 1,000 restaurants, not that Yum keeps track.) Sam Su, who runs Yum in China, projects 20,000 stores someday. "We're nowhere close to saturation at all," he says...
...millions of Chinese find their wealth swelling and their time shrinking, sit-down meals involving several generations no longer fit the needs of a hurried and harried middle class. "The lifestyle is changing," says Su. "People are getting more urbanized and busy, with less time to cook at home." KFC's grab-and-go menu items were a novel solution, while Pizza Hut launched the concept of eating out at a casual restaurant with the whole family. KFC opened its first drive-through in 2002 just as China was becoming a car-owning culture. In 2001 Pizza Hut Home Service...
...quixotic, then Novak, 55, is the right man for the job. The CEO of Yum since 2000, he's a plain-talking, cheerleading executive who boasts of never having attended business school. He's given to goofy team-building tactics like passing out rubber chickens (and $100) to KFC managers whose stores are performing well. A former $7,200-a-year advertising copywriter, Novak took his marketing chops to PepsiCo in 1987. Though he suffered his biggest failure there--Crystal Pepsi, which he still contends was the right idea at the wrong time--he was handed the reins...
...quality and service associated with an American brand. The formula developed by Yum's other banners overseas--cheap food delivered in cheerful surroundings--has provided a welcome mat for the company. Diner Frank Li, a project engineer on a trip from Suzhou, says the restaurant's link to KFC and Pizza Hut is a draw, not a drawback. "Those places are good quality," he says. "You know what you're going to get. They are a very professional company that must know what it's doing, and I think the quality here shows that...