Despite Food Safety Setback, Yum Brands Believes In China’s Potential

Though Yum Brands has cut ties with the company that supplied its Chinese KFC locations with tainted meat, consumers remain wary. The company operates 4,800 KFC restaurants and 1,600 Pizza Huts, so a slow rebound from the disaster will be costly. It took Yum more than a year to recover from a similar publicity problem that occurred in 2012 when a Chinese media outlet accused local KFC suppliers of “cramming extra antibiotics into their chickens”. Yum CEO Greg Creed said the company firmly believes in the long-term potential of the Chinese market and expects to open at least 700 new units there.