Yum! keeps 1st-Q guidance despite Feb. same-store sales fall

Nation's Restaurant News, March 10, 2003

LOUISVILLE, KY. -- Yum! Brands Inc. reconfirmed its first-quarter 2003 earnings guidance of 38 cents a share, despite a 5-percent drop in domestic same-store sales in February.

Yum earned 38 cents a share, before unusual gains, in the first quarter of 2002. The company said domestic sales were reduced by about 2 percentage points in February by extreme weather conditions, which forced the temporary closing of many restaurants in the Midwest and Northeast.

International sales were up 10 percent in February in local currency and up 15 percent in U.S. dollars.

Yum, which has almost 33,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries and territories, said the favorable foreign currency impact as well as effective contingency planning in the face of severe weather in the United States would help the company meet its first-quarter target. February same-store sales were down 7 percent at KFC, down 6 percent at Pizza Hut and down 2 percent at Taco Bell.