Record store openings drive Yum China sales growth

“We are pleased to report the third consecutive quarter of delivering positive same-store sales growth. With revenues exceeding $2 billion in the quarter, restaurant margin, operating profit and net income have all improved. We opened 129 new restaurants in the third quarter and we are on track to achieve our development target of 550-600 new stores in the year,” said Micky Pant, CEO of Yum China.

“In this quarter, our strategic initiatives on digital and delivery continued to show encouraging development, which we believe will enable our long-term growth. The connection with our over 120 million loyalty members is getting stronger. The growth in mobile payments and cashless settlement methods for sales continued to outperform previous quarters. With over 5,100 restaurants across China offering delivery service, delivery contributed over 14% of company sales in the third quarter.

Given the strength of our business and our confidence in generating strong cash flows long term, our Board of Directors has approved a regular quarterly cash dividend program and authorized additional share repurchases.  These demonstrate our strong commitment to increasing shareholder returns through disciplined capital allocation while simultaneously driving strong operating performance.

With our strong operating results in this third quarter and our commitment to return capital to shareholders, we believe we are well-positioned to continue to increase shareholder value over the long run.”