Yum! Brands CEO: Consumer behaviors will change
Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi spoke to Yum! Brands CEO David Gibbs about the restaurant business amid the coronavirus pandemic and what his company is doing to adapt as consumers change their expectations and dining behavior.
Video Transcript
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I want to stick with food and the restaurant industry now because, Brian, I know you spoke with, I believe, it was the CEO of Yum brands. That's the company that owns KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut. What are they saying about the fast food industry and the impact of COVID-19.
BRIAN SOZZI: That's correct, Alexis. The food beat here at Yahoo Finance Live certainly continues. And last night, I caught up with Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs who just took over in early January. We talked about some changes coming to the fast food industry in the months and years to come.
DAVID GIBBS: Consumers behaviors are going to change going through something like this. They've changed in the middle of it. And then as we come out of it, we're going to be ready at Yum across all of our brands to react to the changes that consumers have. They're going to be more interested in things like contactless delivery that was rolled out in Asia initially and is now throughout the world in all of our restaurants and in many of the restaurants in the restaurant industry because it was such a great idea that Yum developed in China. It made sense for the entire industry.
So I think the challenge in this environment is taking the learnings from markets like Asia, applying them to other markets. And, obviously, the most important thing for us is we have this incredibly important role to play in our communities that we serve around the world. Our employees and our franchisees take this amazing pride in giving our customers safe access to affordable food that they love.
And we can do that. We're well-positioned to do that by rolling out things like contactless delivery where you can just order on an app and make sure that when the food comes to your home, it's placed at your door. You're notified, but the driver doesn't have any contact with you because the driver steps away and keeps a good social distance between you and the cus-- between he or she and the customer.
BRIAN SOZZI: [INAUDIBLE].
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I hear you. And we keep hearing about how people want to go to cashless payments. We just don't want to be touching anything. I do truly believe that this pandemic is changing not only the way we work but also the way we're going to buy things. Really, our day-to-day lives are going to be changed, I would imagine on a permanent basis when we come out the other side of this. Brian, great stuff. Thanks for that.
