Yum! Brands

'''Yum! Brands, Inc. or Yum!''' is a United States-based Fortune 500 corporation. Yum! operates or licenses Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet restaurants worldwide. Prior to 2011, Yum! also owned Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants.

Based in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's largest fast food restaurant company in terms of system units—more than 39,000 restaurants around the world in over 125 countries. In 2011, Yum!'s global sales totaled more than US$14 billion.

Tricon Global
Yum! was created on May 30, 1997, as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. an independent company, as a result of a spin-out of the former fast food division of PepsiCo, which owned and franchised the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands worldwide. Because of the company's previous relationship with Pepsi, Yum! Brands has a lifetime contract with PepsiCo, with notable exceptions the contracts of franchisees such as HMSHost and college-operated locations with Coca-Cola which override Yum's lifetime PepsiCo contract, along with some scattered KFC franchises across the United States which continue to maintain Coke fountain rights.

Expansion
In March 2002, Tricon announced the acquisition of Lexington, Kentucky-based Yorkshire Global Restaurants, owner of the Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants chains and its intention to change the company's name to Yum! Brands, Inc. On May 16, 2002, the name change became effective after a vote during the company's annual shareholders meeting, and on June 17, 2002, Yum! executed a two-for-one stock split. Shortly afterwards, due to Yum!'s lifetime contract with Pepsi, Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants (both of which previously served Coca-Cola products) began switching to Pepsi products, with A&W retaining A&W Root Beer from a separate deal with Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

In 2003, Yum! launched WingStreet as a hybrid combo unit with an existing Pizza Hut franchise.

International growth
In January 2011, Yum! announced its intentions to divest itself of its Long John Silver's and A&W brands to focus on its core brands of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. For the decade leading up to the company's announcement, major growth had relied on international expansion. With little presence outside North America, the two chains no longer fit in the company's long-term growth plans. The foreign expansion—particularly that of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut—was cited in the firm's January 18, 2011 announcement of its intention to sell the A&W and Long John Silver's chains. Both of those chains also suffered from poor sales, and had fewer locations compared to the other chains in the Yum! Brands portfolio. In September 2011, Yum! announced they had found buyers for the A&W and LJS chains. A Great American Brand LLC will buy A&W, and LJS will be acquired by LJS Partners LLC. Yum! Brands had originally purchased the parent company of Long John Silver's and A&W brands in 2003 for $320 million.

In May 2011, Yum! agreed to purchase mainland Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep for HK$4.56 billion. The deal spent more than 4 months in anti-trust review by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, to determine whether or not the transaction would result in a monopolistic positioning of Yum! in the country's restaurant industry. The Ministry approved the deal in November 2011, according to Little Sheep representatives.

In 2012, KFC was the first American fast food restaurant to operate in the West Bank; it opened in Ramallah; a Pizza Hut is also planned.

In 2013, a few KFC locations in China supplied chicken found to contain "excess levels of chemical residue". Yum! has lost 6% of sales from publicity in China as of January 25.

The company opened its first restaurant in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in May, 2013. For Mongolia, KFC is the first western fast food to open its doors in the country. The company is planning to open 15 more restaurants in Ulaanbaatar in the next 5 years, including the country's first drive-thru service. Yum Brands also has stores in Target and Wal-Mart stores

Yum! Brands opened its 40,000th store in Calangute, Goa, India in October 2013.

Corporate
The current chairman and chief executive officer of Yum! Brands is David C. Novak. Novak became CEO of predecessor firm Tricon Global on January 1, 2000, and chairman of the board on January 1, 2001. He is also a member of the Yum! executive/finance committee.

Since 2006, Yum! Brands has served as the corporate sponsor of the Kentucky Derby.

Current

 * KFC
 * Pizza Hut
 * Taco Bell
 * WingStreet
 * East Dawning
 * Little Sheep

Former

 * A&W Restaurants - sold to a consortium of A&W franchisees, through A Great American Brand LLC 2011
 * Long John Silver's - sold to Long John Silver's franchisees and other private investors 2011

Urination incident
On February 19, 2014, news (and video) broke of an employee urinating in a sink at a Pizza Hut branch in Kermit, West Virginia. The incident took place after business hours. In the video, the employee, a district manager, can be seen working on a computer and then turning around, unzipping his pants, and relieving himself in the sink. He has been fired over the incident. The Mingo County Health Department closed the restaurant citing a “substantial hazard to the public health". The branch will remain closed until health officials are satisfied with cleanup and assurance safeguards are in place.