Yum China,About the company that owns the KFC and Pizza Hut chains in mainland China, remains committed to its target of opening up to 1,300 stores in 2023, according to its CEO Joey Wat. The company plans to continue its pace of opening 1,100 to 1,300 new outlets this year, with a total capital spend of $700 million to $900 million, the company’s chief executive told Reuters. What’s comments came after the release of the firm’s latest financial results, which showed a 25% increase in second-quarter revenue. “In the last few years we have been opening new stores not only in lower tier cities but also increased density in the top tier cities and the results are very good,” Wat said, referring to classifications of China’s cities based on population size, income, and consumer activity. Acknowledging the impact of China’s COVID-19 policies and ongoing waves of infections, Wat said “Now we are in summer trading, we see that traffic is building because people are making trips and therefore in tier 2 cities the recovery is going well. It just takes a bit more time … because after three such challenging years, you need to give people time to get out of it.” [Reuters]
