Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC Closures: Yum! Brands Closes 7,000 Restaurants During Coronavirus Outbreak

Yum! Brands (YUM), the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, has reportedly closed about 7,000 restaurants globally because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The closures include more than 1,000 Pizza Hut Express locations in the U.S. and over 900 KFC restaurants in the U.K., according to Yum! Brands’ U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The closures affect one in seven Yum! Brands restaurants globally out of its portfolio of 50,000 locations, Restaurant Business reported.

“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the operations of our restaurants in numerous markets across the world,” Yum! Brands said in its SEC filing. “As we have taken steps in response to the pandemic, our primary focus continues to be the safety of everyone who engages with our Brands, including our employees, franchisees and their team members, and customers.”

Yum! Brands also said that as the COVID-19 situation evolves, it is looking at ways to make food safely available to its customers conveniently, with low contact, and in accordance with local government and public health guidelines.

KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bello, and The Habit Burger Grill offer delivery, drive-thru, and curbside pickup for food orders with contactless pizza delivery offered by Pizza Hut in the U.S. and 48 other countries. Through GrubHub, Taco Bell and KFC also offer contactless delivery.

To help franchise owners, Yum! Brands is working to access more capital with grace periods for near-term payments when necessary. It said it is also allowing deferred 2020 capital obligations for remodels and new restaurant development until the end of the year.

According to the SEC filing, Yum! Brands has secured $525 million on its revolving credit line to provide cash for the coming months and will pay workers at company-operated stores that are closed or required to stay home.

Shares of Yum! Brands stock were up 3.90% as of 12:09 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.