Earnings Labs

Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM)

Q1 2020 Earnings Call· Wed, Apr 29, 2020

$156.46

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Yum! Brands 2020 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, today’s event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Keith Siegner, Vice President, Investor Relations, M&A and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Keith Siegner

Analyst

Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On our call today are David Gibbs, our CEO; Chris Turner, our Chief Financial Officer; and Dave Russell, our Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller. Following remarks from David and Chris, we will operating expense the call to questions. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that this conference call includes Forward-Looking Statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to future events and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. We are going to do our best to provide our current thinking about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business. But obviously this situation is completely unprecedented and evolving. So any forward-looking remarks should be considered in light of the uncertainty regarding the severity and duration of the pandemic and variable that will be impacted as a result. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this announcement and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our earnings release and the risk factors included in our filings with the SEC. In addition, please refer to our earnings releases and relevant sections of our filings with the SEC to find disclosures and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures that may be used on today’s call. Please note the following regarding our basis of presentation. First, all system sales results exclude the impact of foreign currency. Second, core operating profit growth figures exclude the impact of foreign currency and special items. For more information on our reporting calendar for each market, please visit the Financial Reports section of our website. We are broadcasting this conference call via our website. This call is also being recorded and will be available for playback. Please be advised that if you ask a question, it will be included in both our live conference and in any future use of the recording. We would like to make you aware of upcoming Yum! investor events and the following. First, disclosures pertaining to outstanding debt in our restricted group capital structure will be provided at the time of the Form 10-Q filing. Second, second quarter earnings will be released on July 30, 2020, with the conference call on the same day. Now, I would like to turn the call over to David Gibbs.

David Gibbs

Analyst

Thank you, Keith. And good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the unprecedented challenges that we are all experiencing and say a heartfelt thank you to our team members and franchisees around the world. It is been amazing to see our entire system band together and take action to confront these challenges with unbelievable speed. And while many of us are working to play our part, the brave healthcare workers on the front lines have the most critical role, and our positive thoughts are with them and everyone affected by COVID-19. Our goal today is to be transparent and give you timely information about the state of our business. I will start with an overall review of first quarter and the current state of the business and use a few examples to illustrate the power of our unrivaled culture and talent and unmatched operating capability. I will also highlight how our brands are adapting the RED framework to be relevant, easy and distinctive in this environment. Then Chris will share more details of our Q1 results and current state. How we are adjusting our business model and supporting franchisees and their healthy liquidity position. For Q1 results, we were encouraged by our momentum early in the quarter driven by the underlying strength of our brand. However, as we signaled in our 8-K on March 24th, the quarter was heavily impacted by COVID-19, which was the primary reason core operating profit declined 6%. Overall Yum! system sales declined 3% as our same-store sales decline of 7% was partially offset by 4% net new unit growth. The impact on our sales in each market is dependent upon the timing, severity and duration of the outbreak as well as each markets reliance on dine-in sale.…

Chris Turner

Analyst

Thank you, David and good morning everyone. Today I will discuss our first quarter results. April highlights 2020 guidance and our capital strategy to begin our first quarter results. As David mentioned, in Q1, we reported a system sales decline of 3%, same-store sales decline of 7% and net new unit growth of 4%. On the development front, we opened 515 gross new restaurants or 65 restaurants on a net new basis and added 276 Habit Restaurants for an aggregate increase of [341] (Ph) during the quarter. Core operating profit declined 6%, EPS excluding special items was $0.64, which included a $0.06 headwind owing to the change in fair value of our investments and Grubhub. As we signaled in our recent 8-K, COVID-19 weighed heavily on our Q1 results and is having a much more significant impact on Q2. As COVID and related Government restrictions became more prevalent across the system, especially in Western Europe, and the U.S., our overall same-store sales deteriorated through the month of March before starting to trend better in April. To illustrate these recent trends, I will share our latest rough approximation of recent same-store sales growth. As a reminder, our methodology has always been that temporary closures remain in our base for determining same-store sales growth. In the first week of March, our global same-store sales growth was approximately flat. We then saw a rapid decline in the following week seeing same-store sales drop to approximately negative 10%. The decline continued with Yum’s global same-store sales falling to beyond negative 30% on average, across the second half of March and in April. This includes the impact of approximately 20% of our stores being closed. Pizza Hut global same-store sales in that timeframe were down to between negative 20% and negative 25%, negatively impacted by…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] Today’s first question comes from David Palmer at Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

David Palmer

Analyst

Thanks. And good morning, I believe in your prepared remarks you talked about where things bottomed in the second half of March and into early April in each of the global brands. Could you speak to the pace of recovery that you have seen in recent weeks and where things are lately? And if there is anything unusual about that, are those things that are causing those weekly numbers to be weird or somehow unsustainable, we would love to hear about that. And then separately on the franchisee health, I know that that is a big topic these days. Could you talk to what you are seeing out there from your biggest franchisees? Are there any major issues things that are causing your franchise revenue to be in arrears or anything there we should be aware of. Thanks.

David Gibbs

Analyst

Thanks, David. As far as the comments about bottoming, I think we called out that the number of units that were closed at any one point looks like it bottomed at 11,000. And then we have opened back at least 1000 of those, if not a few more. And we are opening more every day. So we think from a unit count standpoint that we are past the trough on that and backed it into the business of reopening. In fact, there is just an announcement that just came out, that KFC UK is going to have up to about 100 of their stores reopened by next week. And they are having success reopening stores primarily through offering delivery from the reopened stores. As far as the sales trends, we are really not going to comment in great detail beyond the comments that we made. That trends have improved significantly, as we have moved through April. That is owing to a number of factors. Certain markets have really figured out how to operate in this environment. Just to give you another example, the Pizza Hut Japan business looks like it is going to be up well over 50% in the month of April. So that is a business that is figured out how to market with value and in low contact options in this environment. Certainly KFC, Australia is doing well. KFC UK, as I mentioned is reopening stores. In the U.S., the stimulus impact on consumers is obviously helping our business and helping build momentum there as well. But I think you heard last night from Yum! China that what they have learned as they have gone through the recovery isn’t that it has been a little bit uneven makes it very difficult to forecast, where bottoms are and exact trends, but certainly look forward to sharing more details on sales, when we get to the Q2 results. I will let Chris talk a little bit more about the franchise health question that you asked in some of those issues.

Chris Turner

Analyst

Yes. Good question on franchisee health David. I will provide a little bit of context on that. I would say first and foremost, I have had a chance to work along with several folks at Yum! with our franchisees through this crisis. And it is just been amazing to see the great leaders that the men and women who lead these franchisee organizations. How great their leadership has been during this time of crisis. They have been so focused on protecting and enhancing the safety of their team members other customers and continuing to operate, where the stores are open throughout the crisis. And I think we are going to emerge from this with an even stronger bond with our franchisees. On the specific topic of franchisee health, we typically evaluate franchisee financial strengths as new franchisees enter our system. And in some cases, we have contractual arrangements or policies and provisions in our arrangements with franchisees related to their financial health. Of course with 2,000 franchisees across our 290 plus brand country combinations. It is really hard to paint the franchisee base, or our arrangements with them with a broad brush. Just to give you a feel for that in the U.S. about 60% of our franchisees in the U.S. operate one to three stores. And many of them are feeling the same stress that small businesses across the country are feeling through this crisis. Of course, we go around the globe, we have many larger franchisees. In fact, about 80% of our international restaurants are operated by franchisees with 100 or more units. And while these larger franchisees are generally strong and resilient, many of them are feeling the same financial pressures that other large companies and other industries are feeling as a result of the crisis. So…

Keith Siegner

Analyst

Thanks. Operator, next question.

Operator

Operator

Yes sir. Next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Sara Senatore

Analyst · Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Just a clarification and then a question. On the franchisee support, I was wondering and I apologize if I missed this. If you could just talk about the franchisee expense. And I think that was the one line item that was a bit higher than we had expected versus very tight control on some of the other operating service lines. So just a little bit more color on that and the extent to which it reflected the support that you have provided. And then after the peak out you said you are starting to see the benefits of the new marketing approach. Could you just talk about maybe what that looks like? How you are measuring it? Is it customer satisfaction scores or something more tangible? I recognize that in this environment, there is a lot of puts and takes, but just wanted to get a little more color on that. Thank you.

Chris Turner

Analyst · Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Great. So this is Chris, I will start with your question around the bad debt expense and then I will turn it over to David for the second part of your question. So on the bad debt expense. You just noted in the release this morning that that was a driver in both Pizza Hut and KFC. And for Q1, it continues to be a story of a small number of accounts. So I will try to give you some context around it. So in Q1, we had $28.5 million of bad debt expense, which is up about $22 million year-over-year versus Q1 last year. Historically on bad debt expense, our approach has been to book allowances for specific doubtful accounts. In general, we include 100% of the balances for any franchisee that gets over 60-days in arrears. This quarter, one of the things that happened is, as I’m sure you are aware of the implementation of the new GAAP standards on current expected credit losses. So given the implementation of that standard, we of course reflected on the COVID crisis. And the disruption that it is causing. And we thought it was appropriate to book some additional allowance in Q1. And that represented about $5.5 million of the $22 million increase year-over-year. So that leaves about $17 million increase versus Q1 last year that was in franchisees specific situations. That was primarily driven by a few KFC accounts, mostly in Europe and Latin America, and a handful of Pizza Hut U.S. accounts. If I if I take this from a different lens, just to give you a sense on this being an issue around a small number of accounts in Q1. If I take our total balance you know for allowance for doubtful accounts on a global basis, that if you took the top-20 franchisees that we have reserved, which is 1% of our 2,000 franchisees around the globe, that represents about 70% of the total franchisees specific reserves. A different way to slice the current balance, about half of it is driven by Pizza Hut U.S. And Pizza Hut U.S., again is driven by a handful of accounts. There are eight Pizza Hut U.S. accounts that drive 80% to 90% of that balance. We have discussed those handful of situations in the past. So obviously, that is just a snapshot of where we are in the first quarter. As Keith mentioned, when we were opening up this call, it is a really unprecedented situation and the pandemic is causing strain on our franchisees particularly in markets where stores have been closed and we are working hard with them to help bridge to the other side.

David Gibbs

Analyst · Bernstein. Please go ahead.

And Sara as far as your question on Pizza Hut, we are very excited about the impact it that Kevin Hochman is having on that business, and his new team, he has brought some new people in with him. you have probably seen that we have repositioned the brand’s tagline, to from Our Hut to Yours, that was done before the impact on our business from COVID-19, but really reinforces our credentials as a delivery player. There has been all sorts of work on the operation side in terms of our delivery capabilities. You have seen us rollout contactless carryout in addition to contactless delivery. As a reminder, both of those things were invented by our Pizza Hut China business. And Joey Wat and her great team is being very innovative on reacting to the challenges of this environment. And now they have rolled across our business all around the world. And in fact have also rolled across the industry as it is a great idea to meet the needs of consumers at this time. So this focus on contactless, the repositioning of the brand and focusing on the delivery and carryout component. Actually led to - recently we set a digital sales record in the Pizza Hut U.S. business doing more sales on typical Friday than we did on either of the last two Super Bowls which held our previous record. So it gives you a sense that the brand is going through some rapid changes, things that have been on our roadmap. And what I would like to say is, this three month period we are in right now is basically going to have three years worth of changes to our businesses. And it is accelerating the plan that we had for Pizza Hut and getting us to be truly this digital delivery carryout business. Another major benefit to the Pizza brand, which Kevin and the team are leveraging, it is just the trust that consumers have with the brand given its long operating history and being part of the fabric of the community, Pizza Hut is a trusted restaurant brand. And in times like this, I think consumers are turning to those kinds of brands.

Keith Siegner

Analyst · Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Next question, operator.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Dennis Geiger, UBS. Please go ahead.

Dennis Geiger

Analyst

Thanks and hope you are all doing well. Just wondering, if you could talk a bit more about the longer term unit growth and potential impacts exiting the COVID situation. Understanding it is difficult to determine when you settle back into that algorithm. Could you help us think a little bit about the puts and takes to unit development over the next couple of years maybe how the current situation could broadly impact you know franchisee demand or ability to open units based on access to capital, et cetera. And any kind of puts and takes, any thought would be great. Thank you.

David Gibbs

Analyst

Obviously, we are excited about the unit growth that we delivered in 2019 with over 2,000 net new units and that was obviously up from 2018, which was up from 2017. We have had sequential improvement in unit development and expected that to continue into 2020. This new environment changes a lot of the variables. But we still think long-term that the ability to grow our unit count will be there, it may be slightly different. Obviously, with off-premise being a bigger part of the equation, our assets may be a little bit more designed for off-premise than they are today. And in terms of the variables, Dennis as you think about this, there could be an opportunity from a real estate standpoint, I think Yum! China talked about this last night on their call. There could be an opportunity for locations that might not have previously been available. Brands that are doing well in this environment should have an opportunity to expand their footprint. Of course, the challenges in the short-term, our capital availability to our franchisees. And that is something that we will look for them to get through. But we have obviously withdrawn our guidance. So I’m not going to give you exact numbers about what we think about the future. But there is no reason to think that this brands - that our business in any way, shape or form is not going to be a growth business long-term. And unit development is a big part of that.

Keith Siegner

Analyst

Thank you. Next question.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from David Tarantino with Baird. Please go ahead.

David Tarantino

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Hope everyone is doing well. Chris, my question is about the level of cash that you might need to consume here in the short run to assist franchisees. I was wondering if you could help frame up that dynamic. And then as you think about bad debt expense heading into the second half of the year. I guess how are you thinking about the risks of allowing some of the I guess weaker performing franchisees to defer payments. And what that might look like as the year unfolds here.

Chris Turner

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thanks, David. Good questions. Obviously I think for all companies right now managing liquidity through the crisis is top of the list. We feel really, like we are in a really strong position given the moves that we made that I mentioned earlier around starting last year hitting pause on share purchases. And then making the bond offering right at the beginning of April that short up our cash position. We think that gives us plenty of liquidity and plenty of cushion to work with our franchisees as we move through the next quarter. So you think about these grace periods, it is only a subset of franchisees. We will be making those available to franchisees who need the access to capital. And so if you think about our cash burn over the next few months. The number one factor is what is happening to the overall sales rate. And then second, as we see franchisees take advantage of the grace periods we will see couple of months there where, we will have fewer royalties coming in the door. But then as we collect on the back end of that, that will shore back up. But we have got plenty of cushion we feel with our current cash position. In terms of franchisee health, you know, as we mentioned one of the qualifications for being able to take advantage of those grace periods for the franchisees who need it, is that they are in good standing. And so around the globe, our brand teams have worked closely with the franchisees to manage eligibility into that program. So that is something that we have been managing carefully as we go through this. But as I mentioned earlier, this is just one leg of the stool. There is so many other components starting with the great leadership of our franchisees and what they are doing to drive sales, what they are doing to drive the performance of their own businesses, plus all of the assistance they are getting from their other partners in certain cases. And it is the collection of those that gives us confidence about how our franchisees come out on the backside even stronger.

Keith Siegner

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Next question operator.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John Glass with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

John Glass

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. I appreciate the visibility on unit openings is unclear at this point. Do you expect though, an uptick in the number of permanent closures in the system? And if so what do you think that is. Could you specifically inside of that talk about the Pizza Hut situation in the U.S., I think there was already some anticipated closures does that accelerate that process? And then finally, you talk about franchisee assistance in relief on royalties? Are there other options on the table? Or do you draw the line there, I’m thinking about either add fund contribution top-ups from the company or even direct capital injections into certain franchisees, if those are considered options or not?

David Gibbs

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Thanks John. I guess on your first question on unit development, you are right it is unclear just because of the variables that I mentioned earlier. Certainly when you have 50,000 restaurants around the world, we are naturally closing certain number of them every year. That is why we open a growth number of units and have net no openings. That was what we talked about. So to the extent that there may be some situations that we wanted to get out of with units, this would be an opportunity to take advantage of them, if they are closed now. But we are not anticipating a massive number of permanent closures coming out of this. And as far as the Pizza Hut business goes. In the U.S., as I mentioned, Kevin Hochman and franchisees are working really closely together to take the brand to new heights. And become the modern delivery player in the category. And that involves the asset base, and they are working together on that. So there may be opportunities there. But again, capital and there are other constraints that will play into that. As far as the relief that we are providing for the franchisees. As Chris has described it as a grace period, and the money is coming back to us at the other end of the grace period, there really haven’t been discussions about other items like advertising or anything like that and we think the franchisees are working closely with us and we are getting through this. As far as other options for things that we might do, there may be a couple of specific situations, where we will have to do something beyond different than what we have described. But there is no wholesale other programs without the launch to address any of that.

Keith Siegner

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Thank you. operator, next question please.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Charles with Cowen. Please go ahead.

Andrew Charles

Analyst · Cowen. Please go ahead.

Great, thanks. One clarification question. Within Taco Bell’s 30% sales decline at the March. Can you contextualize how much of that is attributable to those lack of breakfast both in terms of sales and the store counts. And then my question was really just in the comment on the outside capital is available to assist here. Just curious what that means for what options are on the table. Is this a willingness to take on more debt? Could this perhaps even you know pipe in the business? Just your thoughts and what kind of is in the range of play there. Thanks.

David Gibbs

Analyst · Cowen. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Andrew. As far as Taco Bell specifically, I do want to just give a shout out to Mark King and the Taco Bell team who put up a great year in 2019. And then as we mentioned in the script, we are targeting along at 6% same-store sales growth until the impact of COVID-19. I have been really proud of how the Taco Bell team has reacted to this. As you mentioned in many ways, their business has had the most impact because they have a breakfast business which our other businesses don’t and because they were relies on late nights. As some of you can imagine, the breakfast business is impacted when people aren’t on the roads going to work. They are not going through a drive through for breakfast as much. And the late night businesses obviously impact people aren’t out in bars and theaters and things like that. So that Taco Bell had the impact from that. But their core businesses drive through business is perfectly designed for this time. And then they are embracing the delivery and carry out model. And, I think Taco Bell and their creative team is well positioned to get through this. As far as the outside capital, that wasn’t meant to imply anything along the lines of pipe or anything like that. That was more designed to address. If we do have franchisees that are in financial distress, one of the options we have is interested buyers outside the system, in addition to in many cases, buyers in the system as options to take over those businesses and restructure them. So I think people recognize that Yum! given the skew towards off-premise is well positioned to come out of this stronger. And there are a lot of outside people with capital that want to participate in that, which Chris and the team will take into account as we address the few situations that become problematic.

Keith Siegner

Analyst · Cowen. Please go ahead.

Thank you. operator, next question please.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you. Just kind of looking at this overall crisis. I was just curious that if there is any initial type of thinking about maybe as you kind of look at the corporation, the brands kind of the need to I guess accelerate some work or dig even deeper on things like digital consumer insights and data. If there is an opportunity I mean again, you are kind of coming out of the other side of this. You kind of think about the way that Yum! as a corporation is structured or are you happy with the work that you have done in the past couple of years from a structural perspective? And secondly and related is there an opportunity to how some of the brands themselves work closer together? I know from your many logical reasons, a lot of efforts have had to be siloed. But is this an opportunity to maybe kind of apply more comprehensive digital data consumer insights offered across all the brands that Yum! and maybe you do some more cross brand functionality that perhaps you weren’t doing before?

David Gibbs

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Yes. Great question, John. As I mentioned earlier, I really do things in the few months that we are in the middle of right now are accelerating a lot of trends in the business that would have taken years to take hold like digital order and pay and delivery and technology and all the stuff that everybody is talking about. So in a lot of those things, we have already been working on. We have talked a lot on these calls about the fact that we beefed up our technology team adding Clay Johnson. And at the brand adding all sorts of talent and all the different projects that we have to become much more technology oriented and leveraging that for our business. Those things lend themselves to cross brand collaboration. One of the great things that is going on right now is myself and all of the brand teams and the Yum! executive team are meeting every other day on this crisis to compare notes and leverage our learnings from around the world. We sit in a very unique position, starting with leveraging the learnings that came out of Asia and Yum! China, but all of the other things that are going on around the world right now. This is a great opportunity for us to work closer together and that is exactly what is happening. So I don’t think that is going to be a structural change. I think it is a mindset change. I have talked a lot about the need for even more collaboration in the new world. That is happening, and I think that will serve as well, when we come out of this on the other side.

Keith Siegner

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Thanks operator. We have time for one more question please.

Operator

Operator

Okay. Today’s final question will come from Jon Tower with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Jon Tower

Analyst

Awesome. Great, thanks. Just a couple for me. First, how close are you working with the franchisees to access the PPP loans in the U.S.? And then I guess second, in terms of thinking about historically that the growth of the franchise system and new store growth. How much of that has been self funded versus debt funded? And then I guess lastly, it is thinking about this business longer term. And I think you just kind of answered part of this, but kind of continuing the thread. Has there been anything that you have implemented throughout this crisis that you believe will carry forward from an operating perspective, post crisis across the brands? Thank you.

David Gibbs

Analyst

Why don’t I take last two, and then I will turn it over to Chris on the PPP. As far as new store development, the same thing that Chris talked about, we get 2,000 franchisees, some of them have no debt, like Yum! China, some of them have significant debt. So I don’t know that there is one broad brush answer to how we financed new store development. I think some of it is through taking on debt and others are doing cash flow of their business? Clearly the increase in new unit development indicates that the return and almost all the it being done by franchisees indicates that the returns franchisees are getting meet all of their requirements. And we still, we do think that those that can access capital or have capital will take advantage of the opportunity to build a potentially insecure size at potentially better rates right now. As far as, I’m sorry, the third part of the question?

Jon Tower

Analyst

What things will sustain?

David Gibbs

Analyst

What things will sustain? Yes, it is a great question in terms of what the future of the restaurant industry looks like. Obviously, there is these trends that are accelerating right now, as I mentioned, digital order and pay, delivery and off-premise. I think automation has a bigger role to play in the business as people look for less contact in their food. But then I also think that this is creating new opportunities that play to the strengths in Yum!. We have this strength in value and convenience and really customer trust. The foundation of QSR has always been value and convenience, but these may have different definitions as we go forward. So convenience, one of the things I’m excited about is curbside pickup. Curbside pickup in a contactless way, is really a great way for customers can take control of the order process, it has all sorts of advantages over delivery in some ways in terms of cost, accuracy and time. And we are seeing surprisingly well, our delivery businesses increasing our carryout business through the contactless curbside pickup, like we have launched at Pizza Hut is also increasing pretty strongly. So that is a change that I think is here to stay I bought a TV the other day and did it through curbside pickup and it was an easy process. And I know consumers are starting to talk more about that. I think on value you are seeing a big change in terms of family meals, obviously with more people eating at home. I think some of that is going to stay in our brands have been great at pivoting to offering more value in larger party size constructs. And, I think the thing that we probably haven’t talked about enough is, when you have three brands like we have with the history that they have with consumers. There is a level of trust that consumers have. I have seen it in a lot of surveys about what brands they want to use at this time. There really has to be that trust. We have always been about things like going above and beyond in food safety. We have had a long history of operating in the communities that people live in. And I think they trust our brands. And I think that trust in brands is going to continue. I will let Chris talk just a little bit about franchisee accessing PPP. And then I will close out.

Chris Turner

Analyst

Yes. So, on the question of Government support. Again, we are thinking about franchise health globally. And if we think about our 2000 franchisees around the globe, I mentioned earlier the mix of small businesses and larger businesses. When we talk about that sales drop we experienced in March. The overall average being down 30%, but in some markets with full closures, those franchisees experienced even bigger drops. That was a dramatic cash flow hit to any of our franchisees in markets that were affected like that. And, as we mentioned given the nature of the pandemic, it is requiring this multifaceted solve that includes the franchisees driving their business. Yum! providing things like the grace periods, the other suppliers being involved and these Government support programs. Those Government programs are different from one country to the next. The nature of the program and the extent of the program is obviously specific to what each government and each country or locality is doing. To the extent we can we try to help our franchisees understand those programs. And we appreciate that they are available. Ultimately, it is the individual franchise’s decision to access any of those programs. But certainly, to the extent the franchisees have been challenged, and the aim of many of those programs around the globe is focused on keeping employees employed, keeping them safe, and helping provide a service to consumers in that market. We appreciate the fact that that has been there to support our franchisees and market where it has been available around the globe.

David Gibbs

Analyst

Great. Thanks, Chris. And thanks, everybody. Just want to reiterate. As you all know, we finished 2019 on a really strong note. And we are off to a good start in 2020, before the impact of COVID-19. The business, on a widespread broad basis, it was in good shape before the end of 2019. But we are incredibly uniquely positioned to get through this and come out stronger. And that is our marching orders. And so all we talk about is how do we identify the consumer trends that we need to react to, be nimble and evolve the business, leveraging the learnings that we have from those 290 brand/country combinations. Our unrivaled culture and talent, particularly in terms of the way we are always been attuned to consumers’ needs and constantly evolving. What we offer to the changing consumer is serving us well in this time of changing consumer needs. Our iconic brands, as I mentioned, with the trust and this combination of value and convenience. The diversified business model with 290 brand/country combinations gives us this ability to leverage learnings from around the world. And then finally the fourth point is off-premise. We are made for contactless. Just one simple stat in the U.S. Taco Bell and KFC 95% of their stores have drive through. These were always competitive advantages but bigger advantages today. So I will just finish by thanking the people that bring our business to life on the front lines every day that have been amazing as we have gone through this, our employees and the restaurants and our franchisees. Our franchisees are building stronger bonds with us than we have ever had working together to get through this together. And our employees are doing an incredible job of serving consumers safe food in a contactless manner, to bring some normalcy to their lives during these challenging times. Thanks, everyone, for your time today.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.