Yum! Brands, Inc.

Yum is selling Pizza Hut and becoming a two-brand company, which throws the whole story onto one question: can it make the restaurants it already has sell more, instead of growing only by opening new ones?How much of profit growth comes from new stores versus existing ones?

• Yum is selling Pizza Hut and becoming a two-brand company.

  In June it agreed to sell Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion, promising most of the net cash to buy back its own shares. KFC and Taco Bell now carry essentially all the profit, so this is a deliberate choice to be smaller and simpler.

• KFC is the profit engine and the part management admits is underperforming.

  KFC is 58% of divisional profit and opens a store every three hours, yet existing restaurants sold only 2% more. Management says it is dissatisfied, and is resetting the brand across its top 20 markets by the end of 2027.Which KFC markets are still holding same-store sales back?

• A US food-safety scare hit Yum's one clean growth story.

  Taco Bell had beaten the industry for nine straight quarters before an industry-wide US issue hit in July. Sales turned slightly negative and Q3 company-store margins are guided down to roughly 19-21%, with more money going into promotions.How quickly did Taco Bell sales recover in past food-safety scares?