Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp., the largest restaurant chain based in the county, is set to see an undisclosed number of layoffs as its parent company cuts hundreds of jobs.
Louisville, Ky.-based Yum Brands Inc. said Wednesday it is cutting “several hundred” jobs at Taco Bell and its Pizza Hut subsidiary.
Cuts are coming at Yum’s Kentucky headquarters, at Pizza Hut’s base in Dallas and in Irvine at Taco Bell, the company said.
It wasn’t disclosed how many jobs would be cut at Taco Bell, which employs about 600 people in the county.
Some of the cuts are coming from a move to sell company-owned restaurants to franchisees.
Yum also plans to shift an undisclosed number of jobs from its headquarters to those of its brands.
On Monday, the Business Journal reported that Taco Bell is moving its headquarters from the John Wayne Airport area to the Irvine Spectrum.
Taco Bell signed a 10-year lease for about two-thirds of the space at One Premier Place, a two-building center that faces the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway near Alton Parkway.
The high-profile buildings, which total roughly 300,000 square feet, have served as the West Coast headquarters for Ford Motor Co. since their construction in 2001 at a cost of about $68 million.
