Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Retail-Eating Places
- Listed
- NYSE: YUM
- Incorporated
- NC
- Headquarters
- Louisville, KY
- Fiscal year end
- Dec 31
Financials
FY2025- Revenue
- $8.21B
- Net income
- $1.56B
- Total assets
- $8.20B
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $8.21B | $1.56B | $8.20B |
| FY2024 | $7.55B | $1.49B | $6.73B |
| FY2023 | $7.08B | $1.60B | $6.23B |
| FY2022 | $6.84B | $1.32B | $5.85B |
| FY2021 | $6.58B | $1.57B | $5.97B |
| FY2020 | $5.65B | $904.0M | $5.85B |
Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
The analyses
The Asset-Light Operator · Business Model
Yum Owns Almost No Restaurants. Its Biggest Bet Is on One Company It Can't Control.
Yum Brands franchised its way to 97% of 63,000 restaurants and called it a pure-play royalty machine. But roughly 25% of those units sit inside Yum China — a single licensee paying 3%, not a franchisee Yum can replace. The diversification is real. The concentration is too.
8 min
The Asset-Light Operator · Business Model
Yum Franchised Its Way From 77% to 98% — and Borrowed to 5x EBITDA to Get There
Yum is sold as the visionary that franchised away its restaurants and kept the royalties. But it was only 77% franchised in 2015, hit 98% by 2024, and funded the shift with debt targeting ~5x EBITDA—not operating cash. The clean model rides a leveraged balance sheet.
7 min
The Cannibalization Choice · Decision Forks
Yum Traded 51% of Its Revenue for a 3% Royalty on China, With an Activist at the Table
The story is that food scandals chased Yum out of China. The filings tell a colder one: Yum gave away 51% of its revenue to keep a 3%-of-sales license fee — and an activist got a board seat days before the announcement.
8 min
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
KFC Won China by Becoming Less American, Not More
Everyone thinks KFC conquered China by selling America. It did the opposite — it hired Taiwanese managers over Americans, built its own supply chain from scratch, and ran Beijing 1987 as a lab. By 2024, KFC's 11,648 China stores threw off $8.5 billion.
8 min
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
KFC Built Over 13,000 China Stores on a One-Time Stack of Accidents
KFC opened in Beijing in 1987 and grew to over 13,000 stores in 2,600+ cities. The story sells as a transferable strategy. It was really a one-time stack of accidents - first-mover, a portable product, and a Taiwanese bench - that has never reassembled.
8 min