Yum to Invest $10 Billion in Emerging Markets Push

Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM), the owner of the KFC and Taco Bell fast-food chains, and its partners will spend $10 billion over the next seven years adding restaurants in emerging markets to tap increasing demand for eating out.

The investments will help Yum increase its outlets in these countries to more than 20,000, Chief Executive Officer David Novak said in an interview yesterday. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company, which opened its 40,000th store in Goa, India, said sales from its own and franchise outlets in the South Asian nation will reach $1 billion by 2015.

Yum has said that faster economic expansion in emerging markets will help accelerate growth of its business. Novak is counting on the Western appeal of his restaurants combined with some local cuisine to woo increasing numbers of people who are dining out as incomes increase in these countries.