Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., announced the recent opening of its four hundredth restaurant in Mexico by its international division, Tricon Restaurants International (TRI). TRI’s business in Mexico is comprised of both KFC and Pizza Hut brands. The four hundredth restaurant is a KFC located in the city of Ensenada, Mexico.

KFC was the first quick-service restaurant chain to open in Mexico in 1963. “The KFC brand in Mexico is strong, profitable, and growing rapidly,” said Steven Pepper, managing director of Tricon Mexico.

“We’re capitalizing on the strong consumer appeal and growth potential for both KFC and Pizza Hut throughout Mexico,” he said. “We see tremendous opportunity to further penetrate the marketplace by building new restaurants in areas that currently do not have a KFC or Pizza Hut brand.”

Ensenada is a vibrant, growing city with approximately four hundred thousand residents. The new KFC restaurant has a distinguishing feature that includes a playland for children in the shape of a twenty-five-foot high, one thousand square-foot KFC bucket.

TRI has more than ten thousand restaurants in over one hundred countries and territories. TRI system sales were $7.7 billion in 2000.

Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system units with more than thirty thousand restaurants in over one hundred counties and territories. The company’s brands are KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell.