Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM)

Yum! Brands franchises quick service restaurants. It has over 63,000 of them in 155 countries and territories under four brands, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill, and 97 percent of those units are run by independent franchisees or licensees rather than by the company. YUM itself owns and operates no restaurants; the ones it does own sit in its subsidiaries. It was incorporated in North Carolina in 1997 and its offices are at 1441 Gardiner Lane, Louisville, Kentucky. There are four operating segments, one for each brand's worldwide operations.

The four brands

KFC is the largest, with 33,897 units across 149 countries, 99 percent of them franchised and 90 percent outside the United States. It began in Corbin, Kentucky with Colonel Harland D. Sanders, who settled his blend of 11 herbs and spices in 1939 and signed his first franchisee in 1952, and it sells fried and non-fried chicken as sandwiches, strips and on the bone. Pizza Hut has 19,974 units in 108 countries, 99 percent franchised, 68 percent of them outside the United States; the first opened in Wichita, Kansas in 1958 and the first franchise a year later, and it sells ready-to-eat pizza through delivery, carryout and casual dining. Taco Bell has 9,030 units in 38 countries, 93 percent franchised and only 14 percent outside the United States. Habit Burger & Grill, the smallest at 384 units in two countries and only 22 percent franchised, opened first in Santa Barbara, California in 1969 and grills burgers and sandwiches to order over an open flame.

The franchise system

The company holds franchise contracts with approximately 1,500 franchisees, ranging from an individual with one restaurant to large listed companies. Of the more than 61,000 franchised units at the end of 2025, about 40 percent operate under master franchise programmes, including over 17,000 units in mainland China, and the rest under store-level agreements. Under either kind, the franchisee supplies the capital: buying or leasing the land, building, equipment, signs, seating, inventories and supplies, and reinvesting over time. The relationship with Yum China and with certain other large franchisees is named as particularly important. The company says it is selective in granting franchises.

The Pizza Hut review

A review of strategic options for the Pizza Hut brand began in 2025. The company states the objective as determining the best approach to the highly fragmented pizza market, and that it intends to finish the review in 2026, with no assurance of any particular outcome or transaction.

How the restaurants work

Units come in two shapes. Traditional ones can offer dine-in, carryout, drive-through and delivery. Non-traditional ones are express units with a shorter menu, usually taking less money, placed in malls, airports, petrol stations, train stations, subways, convenience stores, stadiums, amusement parks and colleges where a full restaurant would not work. Delivery is handled either by the restaurant's own staff or by third-party aggregators. Drive-through is common at Taco Bell, KFC and Habit Burger & Grill and rare at Pizza Hut. Each restaurant is generally led by a restaurant general manager with one or more assistants, and each brand issues manuals setting standards for food safety and quality, food handling, preparation, equipment maintenance, facilities and accounting controls, which franchise organisations then follow while employing their own staff. Byte by Yum! is the company's connected technology platform for operators.

Buying and distribution

The company and its franchisees are large buyers of chicken, cheese, beef and pork, paper and packaging. Prices move, and when they rise the brands may try to pass the increase to customers, which the filing notes cannot be assured. In the United States the company and representatives of the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut franchisee groups belong to Restaurant Supply Chain Solutions, a separate company that buys restaurant products and equipment for the whole system; Habit Burger & Grill joined that arrangement in July 2020. Most goods reach individual restaurants through outside distributors, with McLane Foodservice handling the majority of items for company-owned restaurants and many franchised ones in the United States. Outside the United States, sourcing and distribution run through global, regional and local suppliers managed with the international franchisees. The retail food industry it competes in includes supermarkets, supercentres, warehouse and convenience stores, coffee shops, snack bars, delicatessens and other restaurants.

From Yum! Brands' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing