NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Building on its successful partnership to help grow sales and trust for dairy in the United States, the national dairy checkoff today announced a partnership with Yum! Brands to grow U.S. dairy sales internationally, specifically in Asia Pacific, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.
Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell with nearly 43,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories, is the global leader in the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style restaurant food categories. The checkoff’s international partnership focuses on pilot programs with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.
A pilot program with KFC aims to grow U.S. dairy sales in Latin America and the Caribbean by exploring innovation opportunities like cheese sauces and pairings to complement KFC’s signature international products, such as chicken sandwiches.
“Working to get more cheese on chicken sandwiches is a great opportunity to grow sales,” said Paul Rovey, Arizona dairy farmer and chair of Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), which manages the national dairy checkoff. “Beyond cheese, this partnership also can help create products that grow milk and milk-based drink sales, along with ice cream and other dessert-based items.”
The dairy checkoff also is growing U.S. dairy sales by co-leading a pilot program with Pizza Hut to reach customers in Asia Pacific at its more than 2,500 restaurants in 15 countries. Customers have an appetite for U.S. dairy – the company sources 100 percent of its string cheese for Asia Pacific, which is used in stuffed-crust pizzas, from the United States, according to Enrique Ramirez, chief financial and strategy officer for Pizza Hut.
“U.S. dairy farmers, importers and DMI have brought us tremendous value in dairy expertise and innovation,” said Greg Creed, CEO of Yum! Brands. “I’m incredibly excited about taking this relationship to international markets.”
Both the KFC and Pizza Hut partnerships will include checkoff on-site resources, and will focus on developing innovative, dairy-centric menu items. This approach is based on the successful model working with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in the United States, with on-site checkoff employees working with the foodservice companies to develop dairy-friendly menu items that include Pizza Hut’s Grilled Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza and Taco Bell’s Quesalupa.
For more information about the dairy checkoff, visit dairy.org.
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About Dairy Management Inc.
Dairy Management Inc.™ (DMI) is funded by America’s more than 43,000 dairy farmers, and dairy importers. Created to help increase sales and demand for dairy products, DMI and its related organizations work to increase demand for dairy through research, education and innovation, and to maintain confidence in dairy foods, farms and businesses. DMI manages National Dairy Council and the American Dairy Association, and founded the U.S. Dairy Export Council and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Visit www.dairygood.org to see how the checkoff is building consumer confidence in dairy. To learn more about the dairy checkoff, visit www.dairy.org.
About KFC KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM.), is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain—a global brand with a rich, decades-long history of success and innovation. It all started with one cook, Colonel Harland Sanders, who created a finger lickin’ good recipe more than 75 years ago, a list of secret herbs and spices scratched out on the back of the door to his kitchen. Today we still follow his formula for success, with real cooks breading and freshly preparing our delicious chicken by hand in more than 20,000 restaurants in 125 countries and territories around the world. For more information, visit www.kfc.com.
About Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), delivers more pizza, pasta and wings than any other restaurant in the world. The company began 58 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, when two brothers borrowed $600 from their mom to start a pizzeria. What started out small has become the biggest pizza company in the world, and today operates more than 15,600 restaurants in more than 100 countries serving innovative pizzas, traditional favorites like the signature Pan Pizza, and much more. Pizza Hut also is the proprietor of the BOOK IT!® Program, which is a long-standing children’s literacy program used in more than 630,000 classrooms nationwide. For more information, visit www.pizzahut.com.
Source: Dairy Management Inc.
