Pizza Hut Named Most Trusted Food Service Brand in India by The Economic Times for Fourth Year

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Economic Times’ (India) annual survey of India’s Most Trusted Brands named Pizza Hut as the “Most Trusted Food Service Brand” in India for the fourth year, ahead of all other Indian and global brands. In addition, Pizza Hut is the only restaurant company to place in the Top 25 Service Brands list. Pizza Hut India is part of Yum! Restaurants International (YRI), a division of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system units.

“India represents a huge opportunity for Yum! Brands,” said Graham Allan, president, Yum! Restaurants International. “With an extremely large and young population in excess of 1.1 billion people, growing middle class and emerging economy, we are excited to continue to grow our brands in India. We are making a significant investment in India and are continuing to build an outstanding local team and put the infrastructure in place to capitalize in this large and rapidly growing market,” added Allan.

The Most Trusted Brands survey, which appears in The Economic Times’ June 11 edition, ranks the brands that have earned the trust and loyalty of consumers across India. The survey, conducted by ACNielsen’s ORG-MARG market research company, asked more than 8,000 participants, across different socio-economic, age, income and geographic backgrounds, various questions in order to determine each company’s overall trust score about the brands that consumers believe provide quality, consistency and reassurance.

“We are honored to be named the most trusted food service brand in India,” said Niren Chaudhary, managing director, Yum! Restaurants International India. “The ranking reflects how Pizza Hut enjoys a great reputation with Indian consumers and how we have successfully developed a strong infrastructure, highly skilled workforce and innovative menu that blends local tastes with international products. It is also a testament of our passionate franchisees and Customer Maniacs in our restaurants who help us provide the best experience and service to our customers every day.”

Over the past 10 years, Yum! has become the largest and fastest growing restaurant company in India. As of the first quarter 2008 earnings, the company had 140 Pizza Huts in 35 cities and 33 KFCs in nine cities.

Yum! Restaurants International (YRI), based in Dallas, Texas, is the largest division of Yum! Brands with more than 12,000 restaurants outside the U.S. (excluding Yum! China Division). One of Yum! Brands four key business strategies is to drive aggressive international expansion and build strong brands everywhere. In 2007 operating profit for YRI was $480 million. In each of the last eight years, YRI has opened more than 700 new restaurants outside the U.S. and China.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants, with more than 35,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and territories. The company is ranked #253 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues in excess of $10 billion in 2007. Four of the company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s – are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican-style food and quick-service seafood categories, respectively. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened about four new restaurants each day of the year, making it the largest retail developer in the world. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. Since its spin-off as a publicly traded company in 1997, its stock has quintupled. Last year, the company launched the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. This effort helped save over 1.6 million people from starvation in remote corners of the world, where hunger is most prevalent.