Yum! Brands
Louisville-based, NYSE-listed restaurant company that franchises or operates KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, and sold Pizza Hut in two transactions completed in August and September 2026.
Industry: Restaurants and franchising | Location: Louisville, United States | Founded: 1997
About Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands, Inc. is a restaurant company headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, whose shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol YUM. It franchises or operates KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, and in September 2026 said it had more than 44,000 restaurants in 151 countries and territories.
Yum! was incorporated in North Carolina in 1997. Wikipedia records that PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division that year as Tricon Global Restaurants, renamed Yum! Brands in 2002. It separated its China business as Yum China Holdings on 31 October 2016. Chris Turner became chief executive in October 2025 after serving as chief financial officer from August 2019. Ranjith Roy is chief financial officer and Brian Cornell is non-executive chair of the board.
KFC had 34,747 restaurants at 30 June 2026 and Taco Bell had 9,046. Yum! acquired The Habit Restaurants, operator of Habit Burger & Grill, in March 2020 for about 375 million US dollars. In 2025 it introduced Byte by Yum!, a platform of proprietary software and AI-driven products for restaurant operators. It employed about 49,000 people at the end of 2025.
Yum! began reviewing strategic options for Pizza Hut in 2025. On 16 June 2026 it agreed to sell the brand for about 2.7 billion dollars in two transactions: Pizza Hut outside mainland China to LongRange Capital for about 1.5 billion dollars, and Pizza Hut China to Yum China Holdings for about 1.2 billion dollars. The sales closed on 7 August and 1 September 2026. Yum! may receive an earn-out of up to 75 million dollars by 2030.
For 2025 Yum! reported total revenues of 8,214 million dollars, up 9 percent, and net income of 1,559 million dollars. In its second-quarter 2026 results, released on 30 July 2026, it reported revenues of 2,169 million dollars and net income of 853 million, against 374 million a year earlier.
With the sale complete, Yum! no longer reports a Pizza Hut division. Turner said the transactions make Yum! a more focused company. KFC moved its own headquarters to Plano, Texas, a change announced in February 2025.
Leadership
- Chris Turner, Chief Executive Officer
- Brian Cornell, Non-Executive Chair of the Board
- Ranjith Roy, Chief Financial Officer
- Scott Mezvinsky, Chief Executive Officer, KFC Division
- Sean Tresvant, Chief Executive Officer, Taco Bell Division and Chief Consumer Officer
- Tracy Skeans, Chief Operating Officer and Chief People & Culture Officer
- Erika Burkhardt, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary