Call Start: 19:00 January 1, 0000 8:21 PM ET

Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

February 06, 2024 07:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Joey Wat - Chief Executive Officer

Andy Yeung - Chief Financial Officer

Michelle Shen - Director of Investor Relations

Conference Call Participants

Michelle Cheng - Goldman Sachs

Brian Bittner - Oppenheimer

Xiaopo Wei - Citi

Lina Yan - HSBC

Sijie Lin - CICC

Kevin Yin - J.P. Morgan

Chen Luo - Bank of America

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Yum China Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Michelle Shen, IR, Director. Please go ahead.

Michelle Shen

Thank you, Operator. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining Yum China's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. On today's call are our CEO, Ms. Joey Wat; and our CFO, Mr. Andy Yeung.

I'd like to remind everyone that our earnings call and investor materials contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to future events and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statement in our earnings release and the risk factors included in our filings with the SEC.

This call also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. You should carefully consider the comparable GAAP measures. Reconciliation of non-GAAP and GAAP measures is included in our earnings release. You can find the webcast of this call and a PowerPoint presentation on our IR website. Please note that during today's call, all year-over-year growth results exclude the impact of foreign currency unless otherwise noted.

Now, I would like to turn the call over to Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China. Joey?

Joey Wat

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As Chinese New Year is coming Saturday, I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy Year of the Dragon.

I would like to kick off today's call by expressing my sincere appreciation to all our employees. Their incredible effort help Yum China deliver exceptional growth in the fourth quarter and for the full year. 2023 was a pivotal time for our business. This transformation of our business fundamentals in the past few years has enabled us to seize opportunities emerging from China's reopening and evolving market conditions.

In 2023, we hit record breaking revenue of $11 billion and grew system sales 21% year-over-year, outperforming the industry. Operating profits soared to $1.1 billion, an all-time high excluding special items. Core operating profits grew 79%. We opened a record 1,697 net new stores, expanding our total store count to 14,644 stores. KFC reached 10,296 stores, Pizza Hut reached 3,312 stores.