Milestone Spotlights Company’s Expansion in Emerging Markets
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) today announced the opening of the first
Pizza Hut in Iraq with franchise partner, Al Kout Food Company. The
introduction of the first Pizza Hut in Iraq reflects the reach of the
world’s largest pizza chain and the Company’s expansion in emerging
markets.
Yum! Brands today announced the opening of the first Pizza Hut in Iraq with franchise partner, Al Kout Food Company. The introduction of the first Pizza Hut in Iraq reflects the reach of the world's largest pizza chain and the Company's expansion in emerging markets. (Photo: Business Wire)
“We’re pleased to be able to bring Pizza Hut to Iraq as part of the
explosive growth for our brand around the world,” said Scott Bergren,
CEO, Pizza Hut and Chief Innovation Officer, Yum! Brands. “While Pizza
Hut’s footprint is already significantly larger than our nearest
competitor, we’ve still just scratched the surface of global growth. We
are taking the powerful Pizza Hut Red Roof icon and accelerating the
development of our brand across the Delivery, Express, and Dine-In
channels around the world as only we can.” Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut
division has more than 13,000 restaurants in 85 countries, excluding the
Yum! China and India divisions. Overall, the Company has nearly 15,000
Pizza Hut units worldwide, making it the world’s largest and most
successful pizza brand.
The new restaurant is located in the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq
in the popular Majidi Mall in Erbil. The restaurant features a full
casual dine-in experience for Iraqi consumers with a vibrant, youthful
design and seating for 120 people. The menu is in Kurdish and offers a
range of appetizers, pizzas and flatbreads, pasta, salads, desserts and
drinks.
“Kout Food Group is proud of its partnership with Yum! and the success
of launching the first Pizza Hut Dine-In store in Iraq,” said Mrs. Fadwa
Al-Homaizi, Managing Director, Al Kout Food Company and Co-founder and
Chairwoman, Kout Food Group. “Our utmost priority is to serve our
customers with excellent products and services. This is in line with our
strategy of expansion in Iraq. More and more customers are visiting the
restaurant to test the high-quality Pizza Hut products and to enjoy the
dine-in experience.” Iraq-based Al Kout Food Company is owned by Kout
Food Group which is located in Kuwait.
Al Kout Food Company plans to open four more Pizza Hut restaurants in
Iraq this year including three in Erbil and one in Sulaymaniyah. The
franchisee expects that the five restaurants, including the new Pizza
Hut, will create more than 150 jobs in the region by the end of the
year. Erbil is the capital of the Kurdistan Region and third largest
city in Iraq with more than one million people. Sulaymaniyah is the
second largest city in the region.
Yum! Brands is the worldwide leader in emerging markets with more than
14,000 restaurants and a nearly two-to-one advantage over the nearest
competition. With only two restaurants per million people in the top 10
emerging markets, compared to 58 restaurants per million in the U.S.,
Yum! believes it is on the ground floor of global growth. The Company
and its franchise partners plan to invest $10 Billion and have more than
20,000 restaurants in emerging markets by 2020.
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 40,000
restaurants in more than 125 countries and territories. Yum! is ranked
#201 on the Fortune 500 List with revenues of over $13 billion and in
2013 was named among the top 100 Corporate Citizens by Corporate
Responsibility Magazine. The Company's restaurant brands - KFC, Pizza
Hut and Taco Bell - are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza and
Mexican-style food categories. Outside the United States, the Yum!
Brands system opened over five new restaurants per day, making it a
leader in international retail development.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140409005893/en/
Yum! Brands, Inc.
Virginia Ferguson, 502-874-8200
Source: Yum! Brands, Inc.