Huge dividends from KFC and Pizza Hut helped their owner Yum! Brands more than triple its profit last year, it has been revealed.
The group’s European division has posted a pre-tax profit of $1.2bn (£892.7m) for 2024, up significantly from the $317.1m (£235.8m) it posted for 2023.
The firm, Yum! Restaurant Holdings, is a holding company for the wider group’s investments and does not generate a turnover.
In new accounts filed with Companies House, Yum! Brands said its huge profit was mainly due to a partial write back of its previous impairment loss in resection of Yum! Restaurants Europe.
It added that its profit was also boosted by dividends from Yum! Restaurants Europe and Pizza Hut Europe.
Yum! Restaurants Europe issued a dividend of $176m for the year after posting a pre-tax profit of $122.3m.
Pizza Hut Europe paid out $40m despite its pre-tax profit being slashed for $12.2m to $5.4m.
During 2023 Yum! Brands acquired KFC Holdings BV from a fellow group firm as part of an reorganisation within the wider group.
Yum! Restaurant Holdings itself issued a dividend of $226m to its US parent company, up from $208m.
The wider group includes KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill. The brands are operated by a separate company in China.
Yum!, which has previously owned Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants, was created after being spun off from PepsiCo in 1997.
KFC to create over 7,000 UK jobs
The results come after City AM reported in May that KFC is planning create more than 7,000 jobs in the UK and Ireland over the next five years and open a further 500 restaurants by 2035.
The £1.5bn investment would see £466m go towards opening new locations focusing on building flagship sites and drive-thrus in “key locations” such as Ireland and North West England.
Part of that figure will also be spent on upgrading more than 200 existing KFC restaurants – 20 per cent of the brand’s estate.
KFC added that its plans to create more than 7,000 jobs over the next five years will see it invest £583m.
The brand also said that it will spend £404m to “strengthen KFC’s long-standing relationships with its suppliers and help businesses across the UK&I continue to grow”.
Pizza Hut’s UK debts revealed after rescue
In May this year, City AM also reported that the company behind Pizza Hut’s restaurants in Britain owed more than £50m as it collapsed before being rescued.
Heart With Smart (HWS) was saved in January by an entity controlled by investment firm Directional Capital in a deal which salvaged all but one Pizza Hut location.
Its new owner was the brand’s main partner in Denmark and Sweden while HWS was Pizza Hut’s dine-in franchise partner in the UK.
The pre-pack administration, which was overseen by Interpath Advisory, came at the end of a two-month process to find new investors for the company.
The deal saved more than 3,000 jobs across the country.
Before being saved, HWS was owned by lender Price and the firm’s bosses following a management buyout worth £100m in 2018.
Prior to that, the Pizza Hut franchise was owned by private equity firm Rutland Partners.
While HWS licensed the Pizza Hut name from owner Yum! Brands, the US food giant which also controls KFC, it was not involved in its delivery outlets.