Pizza Express - YUM China still disappointing

All,

While Pizza Hut China performance does not translate one for one into Pizza Express International performance, the continued low LfL growth coupled with the setback in margin are not getting us excited.

Yum China published LfL growth of Pizza Hut of again only +1%.

Other categories including burgers, wraps and chicken rose at +4%, which is still not a great outcome, but better than Pizza.

Shockingly, Pizza Hut EBIT is down from a 13.8% margin to 11.4%. But strong H1 figures mean that YTD profitability is still up on last year.

Pizza Hut is undergoing a repositioning which is cited for the underperformance.

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Wolfgang