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We're building the world's most loved, most trusted and fastest-growing restaurant brands in partnership with the best franchise operators in the business.

Approximately

1,500

franchisees
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Operating more than

59,000

restaurants
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In over

155

countries & territories
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Our Four Iconic Brands

Picture of a close-up of KFC Original Recipe chicken
Close-up poto of Taco Bell tacos
Close-up photo of a Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza
Close-up photo of Habit Burger & Grill burger and fries

Trending Yum! News

<p dir="ltr"><img src="/wps/wcm/connect/yumbrands/e834593b-5b89-4bd1-83df-b50c30f16f25/1/Scott%2BMezvinsky1.jpg?MOD=AJPERES" alt="Scott Mezvinsky" width="250" align="&rdquo;left&rdquo;" class="float-start me-3" title="" /><b>Louisville, Kentucky, January 13, 2025</b>&nbsp;– Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) today announced the promotion of Scott Mezvinsky (49), to KFC Division Chief Executive Officer, reporting to Yum! Brands Chief Executive Officer David Gibbs, effective March 1, 2025. Mezvinsky, a 20-year veteran of the Company who currently serves as President of Taco Bell North America and International, will succeed Sabir Sami, who is stepping down as KFC CEO at the end of February 2025. Mezvinsky will assume global responsibility for driving the brand strategy and performance of KFC.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Scott is one of Yum! Brands’ most respected leaders, with more than 20 years of experience with the company in areas including operations, strategy, finance and development and a strong track record of delivering impactful results,” said Gibbs. “In his most recent role as President of Taco Bell North America and International, Scott has helped implement Taco Bell’s well-known bold and exciting ideas and ensured that global restaurant teams and customers have an industry-leading experience. He is a natural choice to lead KFC’s long-term global growth strategies, working in close partnership with our franchisees.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Prior to his most recent role, Mezvinsky was Taco Bell’s Global Chief Strategy &amp; Financial Officer, leading the finance, development and strategy functions to help reach the Company’s goal of becoming a $20 billion brand. Since joining Yum! Brands in 2004, Mezvinsky held various roles at KFC and Yum!, including General Manager (GM) of KFC Iberia, where he helped turn the market into one of KFC’s leaders, achieving record same store sales growth, net new unit growth and ops metrics in 2018 and 2019. He also held roles in the KFC Latin America and Caribbean market, including Chief Development Officer and VP, Development and Operations. Mezvinsky received his BBA in Accounting from Southern Methodist University and MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It is a tremendous honor to lead an iconic brand such as KFC and have the opportunity to work with talented, dedicated leaders and franchise partners around the world,” Mezvinsky said. “There aren’t many brands that are as well loved and well known as KFC, and I am very excited to play a role in continuing to strengthen and accelerate the growth of this legendary brand in virtually every corner of the world.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Sabir Sami has been CEO of the KFC Division since January 2022 and has held executive positions with Yum! Brands since 2009, including KFC Division Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of KFC Asia, Managing Director for the KFC Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey markets, and GM of Yum! Canada and GM of the KFC Canada and Turkey businesses.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I would like to thank Sabir for his years of service and dedication to Yum! Brands and KFC, and the meaningful impact he has had on our business,” said Gibbs. “He is a highly respected leader in our company and the industry whose focus on strategic brand building and operations has helped elevate the KFC brand around the world. We wish him well as he enjoys this new phase of life with his family.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Sami remains KFC Division CEO through the end of February 2025, to ensure a smooth and seamless transition.</p> <p dir="ltr"><b>About KFC&nbsp;&nbsp;</b><br /> <a href="https://global.kfc.com/" title="https://global.kfc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KFC</a> is a global chicken restaurant brand with a rich, decades-long history of success and innovation. It all started with one cook, Colonel Harland Sanders, who created the Original Recipe more than 90 years ago, a list of 11 secret herbs and spices scratched out on the back of the door to his kitchen. Today, while honoring our heritage, we remain committed to modernizing the colonel's vision, by serving feel-good food, at scale, through inclusive, equitable and sustainable business practices.&nbsp; We continue to follow his formula for success, with real cooks breading and freshly preparing our delicious chicken by hand in more than 30,000 restaurants in 150 countries and territories around the world. KFC is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr"><b>About Yum! Brands</b>&nbsp;<br /> Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, and its subsidiaries franchise or operate a system of over 60,000 restaurants in more than&nbsp;155&nbsp;countries and territories under the company’s concepts – Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger &amp; Grill. The Company's Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut brands are global leaders of the Mexican-inspired food, chicken and pizza categories, respectively. Habit Burger &amp; Grill is a fast casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more.&nbsp;In 2024, Yum! was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies, USA Today’s America’s Climate Leaders and 3BL’s list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens. In 2025, the Company was recognized among TIME magazine’s list of Best Companies for Future Leaders. In addition, Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut brands were ranked in the top 30 of Entrepreneur’s Top Global Franchises Ranking for 2024.&nbsp;</p>
<p> In Petaluma, California, 32 miles north of San Francisco, Habit Burger &amp; Grill and KFC team members recently swapped their signature red and white cups for bright purple ones. In place of their restaurant logos, the words “Sip, Return, Repeat” appeared on the cups, and as residents walked around the downtown area, they encountered 30 local and national chain coffee shops, restaurants and other vendors serving beverages in the same violet-hued cups. What’s more, bright purple receptacle bins were along sidewalks and inside and outside restaurants, including bins at Habit Burger &amp; Grill, KFC and Taco Bell.</p> <p>“From August to October, if you set foot outside of your house in Petaluma, you saw the purple cups,” said Habit Burger &amp; Grill team member Lauren Lamster. “They were everywhere.”</p> <p>What residents lovingly called “the purple craze” was actually The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project, the United States’ first city-wide reusable cup program, which was led by the NextGen Consortium, a collaboration managed by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners focused on developing circular solutions for food and beverage packaging and recovery. Habit and KFC parent company Yum! Brands is a partner in the NextGen Consortium alongside <a href="https://www.closedlooppartners.com/nextgen/" >other leading brands</a>.</p> <p><img src="/wps/wcm/connect/yumbrands/37aa9001-5818-43f7-b19d-2fbf8291a821/1/KPetry_CLP_Day1Petaluma-189.jpg?MOD=AJPERES" title="" style="width: 620px; height: 413px; margin: 0px auto; display: block;" /></p> <p>In Petaluma, the NextGen Consortium wanted to find out if customers would return their cups for reuse if it were made easy. The project replaced single-use cups with free, reusable cups as the default option across all participating restaurants, and installed over 60 return bins at restaurants, convenience stores, community hubs and public locations, making returning a cup easy. </p> <p>Once returned, the cups were professionally washed, sanitized, inspected and then put back into circulation. Any cups that were no longer usable because they were damaged, cracked or misshapen were sent to be recycled with other household and commercial plastic items.</p> <p>The cups were designed with a serialized QR code to direct users to a website, <a href="https://returnmycup.com/" >returnmycup.com</a>, to learn more about the project and to find their closest return bin, but other than that, there was hardly any branding or additional instruction. This was intentional, says Yum! Brands Chief Sustainability Officer Jon Hixson, who cited learnings from a different market, KFC France, which provides reusable cups to its dine-in customers after a <a href="https://www.optimistdaily.com/2023/01/frances-ban-on-single-use-restaurant-tableware-is-a-fast-food-revolution/" >French law took effect in 2023</a> requiring restaurants to do away with disposables.</p> <p>“In France, we used cups that were designed with Colonel Sanders’ face on them, and customers kept them because they thought they were cool,” Hixson said. “This time, we kept it simple. Sip, Return, Repeat – to the purple bins. It’s that easy.”</p> <p><img src="/wps/wcm/connect/yumbrands/37aa9001-5818-43f7-b19d-2fbf8291a821/2/KPetry_CLP_Day1Petaluma-424.jpg?MOD=AJPERES" title="" style="width: 620px; height: 413px; margin: 0px auto; display: block;" /></p> <p>And it was easy for KFC and Habit team members to execute, too. Both brands trained their staff on what to say and how to serve the beverages, and because the same signage was placed in stores, restaurants and around town, customers knew what to expect. Some even came into restaurants asking for the purple cups. </p> <p>“It was a nice, emotional connection,” Hixson said. “The team members felt like they were part of something bigger than themselves – and they were. So many entities had to get on board for this project to happen: local officials – including the mayor – the recycling facility, state government, restaurant franchisees, mom-and-pops, the parent companies of these brands – like Yum!. This project was a culmination of several years of collaboration that’s continuing through 2025 and beyond, and it was made free for customers.”</p> <p>That last part is key. Customers did not have to pay extra for the reuseable cups, and the businesses shared the costs of the signage or cup cleaning. As Hixson said, the entire Petaluma reusable cup trial was made possible through extensive public-private collaboration, led by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, with support and engagement from the city, Zero Waste Sonoma, Recology, community groups and local businesses. </p> <p>By the end of the 12-week program, <a href="https://returnmycup.com/?__hstc=8287853.b6c260f095290691e0b0174129c8d762.1732220685679.1732220685679.1732220685679.1&amp;__hssc=8287853.1.1732220685679&amp;__hsfp=3011104808" >customers returned more than 220,000 cups</a>, which the NextGen Consortium, together with its partner Yum! Brands, sees as an early sign of success. (Full findings from the project will be released in a report by the NextGen Consortium in early 2025.)</p> <p><img src="/wps/wcm/connect/yumbrands/37aa9001-5818-43f7-b19d-2fbf8291a821/3/KPetry_CLP_Day1Petaluma-330.jpg?MOD=AJPERES" title="" style="width: 420px; height: 632px; margin: 0px auto; display: block;" /></p> <p>“We’re excited to dive deeper into the data and learnings from Petaluma and how this is incorporated into our broader sustainable packaging strategy,” Hixson said. “I think the key learning is that people are open to reusable cups and serviceware, as long as we keep it simple and make it easy for them to use.”</p> <p>Maybe the solution to a greener planet is in a purple cup. As Hixson said, it might be that simple.</p> <p><br /></p>

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How I Got Here: Erika Burkhardt

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<p dir="ltr"><!-- Erika Burkhardt --> <style> .modal-xl { min-width: 100%!important; max-width: 100%!important; margin: 10px!important; } </style> <div class="row"> <section class="col-12 text-center"> <a href="" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#erikaModal" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#erikaModal"><img src="/wps/wcm/connect/yumbrands/b6084114-5c93-40f6-b230-fb069df5ae43/erika-burkhardt-high.jpg?MOD=AJPERES&amp;CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE.Z18_5QC4HBC039RJ406SQH4UBH3695-b6084114-5c93-40f6-b230-fb069df5ae43-pcHKgoI" alt="How I Got Here - Erika Burkhardt" class="col-12" /></a> <p><a href="" data-bs-toggle="modal" data-bs-target="#erikaModal" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#erikaModal">Click on image to view</a></p> </section> </div> <div class="modal" id="erikaModal" tabindex="-1" aria-labelledby="erikaModalLabel" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="modal-dialog modal-xl"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-header"> <h5 class="modal-title" id="erikaModalLabel">How I Got Here: Erika Burkhardt</h5> <button type="button" class="close" data-bs-dismiss="modal" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"> <span aria-hidden="true">×</span> </button> </div> <div class="modal-body"> <div class="vev-content"> <script src="https://embed.vev.page/v1/owS0vweXDO/pfBUeCQ5Lqv?target=.vev-content"></script> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></p>