LOUISVILLE: Yum Brands Inc., owner of the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC fast-food chains, said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 30 percent from a combination of strong overseas growth and a sales turnaround at Pizza Hut in the United States.
Pizza Hut’s revenue from U.S. restaurants open at least a year rose 6 percent.
But the figure fell 2 percent at Taco Bell, which had another sluggish quarter in the United States. The Mexican-style chain is still struggling to regain momentum after being stung by publicity last year from a now-dropped lawsuit over the amount of beef in its taco and burrito filling.
At KFC, comparable sales fell 1 percent from a year earlier.
Yum earned $356 million, or 75 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with $274 million, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier. Its revenue rose 15 percent to $4.1 billion.
