Same-store sales at Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp. fell 3% for the four weeks through last Saturday in what one analyst called “the most surprising” part of a sales slowdown at parent Yum Brands Inc.
Yum, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, said sales at restaurants open for at least a year fell 3% in the period. Same-store sales are expected to fall again in the current four-week period, the company said.
Pizza Hut led the most recent slump with a 7% same-store sales decline. KFC was flat.
Taco Bell’s 3% “slowdown is the most surprising,” analyst Joseph Buckley of Bear Stearns wrote in a note to investors, according to MarketWatch.com.
The Mexican fast food chain has been Louisville, Ky.-based Yum’s strongest brand. The sales decline is Taco Bell’s first in more than three years.
“We are a victim of our own success,” Yum Chief Executive David Novak said, referring to Taco Bell and KFC.
