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KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and other Yum China brands

kfc china coronavirus ice cream

A customer in front of a KFC location in China.
Aly Song/Reuters

Yum China spun off from its former parent company, Yum Brands, in 2016. The Shanghai-based independent company has the exclusive right to run KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut restaurants in China, and it also owns a slew of other brands.

In the company’s latest earnings call, CFO Ka Wai Yeung said the coronavirus epidemic — which broke out just before the Lunar New Year, a significant holiday shopping period in China — “caused significant interruptions to our business.”

“The impact comes from temporary closure of our restaurants as well as substantial decline in sales to the restaurant that remained open,” Yeung said.

The CFO went on to explain that “travel restriction, suspended festivities, and shortened operating hours” had also been pain points. As a bright spot, Yeung said “delivery is holding up well” for Yum China.

“Now to better serve our customer and protect our employees, we rolled out contactless delivery, which is very well received by our customers,” Yeung said. “In addition, we also rolled out order online, pick up in store, contactless services and saw some encouraging early results as well.”

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