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., the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system units.
“India represents a huge opportunity for Yum! Brands,” says 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.”
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,” says 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.
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.
