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Taco Bell to expand globally, plans for 1300 restaurants worldwide incl Latin America

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://nrn.com/taco-bell/taco-bell-go-global

The Doritos Locos Taco is going global.

Taco Bell Corp. on Thursday announced changes to its international leadership team, kicking off a growth push to add 1,300 locations overseas.

With about 5,800 units in the U.S. and roughly 250 units internationally, Taco Bell has long operated primarily as a domestic brand.

Parent company YUM! Brands Inc., however, is planning to change that domestic focus by turning Taco Bell into more of a globe trotter, alongside world-spanning sister chains KFC and Pizza Hut.

For Taco Bell, the international push comes as the Irvine, Calif.-based chain also works to add 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. as part of an overall goal to reach $14 billion in sales by 2022.

The plan to add 1,300 international units alone would generate an estimated $2 billion in sales, the company said.

Taco Bell has shown the strongest same-store sales of any core YUM brand in recent years, benefitting from the national rollout of breakfast earlier this year, as well as from menu innovations like the popular Doritos Locos Taco platform. Last month, the chain rolled out a mobile ordering system that could also be a game changer.

“In addition to our focus on innovation, new daypart expansion and delivering world-class operations, another key element to our growth strategy includes focusing on restaurant development both domestically and globally,” said Brian Niccol, Taco Bell’s president, in a statement on the international push.

In 2014, Taco Bell and its franchisees opened nearly 200 restaurants in the U.S., which he described as a record-setting year for the brand.

“I’m confident that these changes to our leadership structure will help us make Taco Bell a brand that people champion around the world,” said Niccol.

The leadership changes include a shift in duties for Melissa Lora, president of Taco Bell International, who will now focus exclusively on emerging growth business outside the U.S.
Click to expand...

Taco Bell will look for experienced franchise operators around the globe, with an emphasis on Europe (United Kingdom and Poland), Asia (Korea, Japan and Thailand) and Latin America (Chile and Peru), as well as India.

The chain currently includes franchised units in 26 countries, though mostly in small batches. At the end of fiscal 2013, the largest numbers of Taco Bells outside the U.S. were in Canada (35) and Puerto Rico (36).

By comparison, Louisville, Ky.-based YUM’s other brands include more than 6,200 units in China at the end of 2013 – including KFC and Pizza Hut, along with the Little Sheep and East Dawning brands there. The company also had 725 units in India, and another 15,000 units in other foreign countries.

Overall, YUM operates or franchises 40,000 restaurants in 125 nations and territories.

One of the most recent international Taco Bell locations to open was in Sheffield, England, in September, for example, where an 80-seat, two-story Taco Bell opened on the high street there, one of four within the U.K.

Notably missing from Taco Bell’s global wish list is China, YUM’s largest market outside the U.S.

YUM has struggled with its KFC units in China following a food-safety scandal there in July that sent same-store sales plummeting.

Company officials, however, have pledged to make a strong recovery in China, continuing to invest in new-unit expansion with 700 new KFC stores planned for 2015, along with 250 more Pizza Hut restaurants.

In a recent report about YUM’s prospects, Wall Street analyst Mark Kalinowski of Janney Capital Markets noted “chatter” that the company could consider spinning off Taco Bell – something he did not expect to happen anytime soon, in part because of its domestic focus.

Taco Bell “just doesn’t seem to be a brand that succeeds to a wild degree in several other countries in which it has been tried, ranging from the United Kingdom, to China, to Australia, to Poland, to Singapore,” Kalinowski wrote.

However, he added parenthetically, “In our view, they’re missing out. We love Taco Bell from a customer standpoint.”
Click to expand...
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Time to celebrate!

hF2ke9Y.jpg
 
A

AlexBasch

Member
If they're smart, they're not gonna try again in Mexico.

Taco Bell tried unsuccessfully to enter the country with their bullshit, overpriced food and it died a quick and painless death.

If you're in this country, you can find a taco joint almost anywhere. An order of tacos will cost you nearly two dollars in any place.

So when they tried to pass tostadas with processed food for nearly six or seven dollars, people just went 'haha fuck you' and the stores closed quickly.

En español, sorry.

And before someone says, 'cite your sources', that place opened up about fifteen minutes from my place.

El Taco Bell Sendero todavía exhibe la publicidad exterior con sus últimas promociones: tacos fritos bañados de queso amarillo a precios de 10, 12 y 17 pesos. Remata con el slogan “Taco Bell es otra cosa”.
Click to expand...
They were desperate enough to put the tacos at almost 99c and yet, nobody bought those.
 
S

Sky Interloper

Member
Incidentally, Mexico isn't listed in those Latin American plans...
Considering how they pretty much crashed and burned the last time they tried, I don't see them doing that again soon, if ever. You can find actual tacos at every street in this country after all.

Sanjuro said:
Time to celebrate!

hF2ke9Y.jpg
Click to expand...

That's not a taco. It looks a morbid, overcooked tostada.
 
F

Fireblend

Banned
There are already tons of Taco Bells here in Costa Rica, like I'm always 2 or so kilometers away from one. I'm guessing they're talking of other countries or else I'd be suspicious they're planning an armed uprising.

Also I feel like TB here is a lot better than in the US (still not for weak stomachs though).
 
C

CrazyDude

Member
Fireblend said:
There are already tons of Taco Bells here in Costa Rica, like I'm always 2 or so kilometers away from one. I'm guessing they're talking of other countries or else I'd be suspicious they're planning an armed uprising.
Click to expand...

American companies causing shit in Latin America, chances are pretty good.
 
P

PorygonVandal

Member
KieferCrimson said:
If they're smart, they're not gonna try again in Mexico.

Taco Bell tried unsuccessfully to enter the country with their bullshit, overpriced food and it died a quick and painless death.

If you're in this country, you can find a taco joint almost anywhere. An order of tacos will cost you nearly two dollars in any place.

So when they tried to pass tostadas with processed food for nearly six or seven dollars, people just went 'haha fuck you' and the stores closed quickly.

En español, sorry.

And before someone says, 'cite your sources', that place opened up about fifteen minutes from my place.


They were desperate enough to put the tacos at almost 99c and yet, nobody bought those.
Click to expand...

That's what happens when you sell something that is not a taco, named taco, expensive and in the land of tacos
 
shira

shira

Member
Taco Bell in Latin America?

This would be like opening a Panda Express in China. Why would they want bastardized American versions of their food?
 
D

Delta Assault

Member
I can see why they'd expand globally. I mean, those heathens in Europe need to understand the reference in Stallone's Demolition Man one of these days.

...But Latin America? What the Christ?
 
C

CreepingFear

Member
Demolition Man predicted this. Taco Bell will be the last and only restaurant left in the world. I just have to figure out how to use the three sea shells.
 
S

Seth C

Member
Delta Assault said:
I can see why they'd expand globally. I mean, those heathens in Europe need to understand the reference in Stallone's Demolition Man one of these days.

...But Latin America? What the Christ?
Click to expand...

Yeah. Europe makes total sense though. Most of the mexican food I've acfually manages to found over there is somehow even less authentic than Taco Bell.
 
B

Bulbo Urethral Baggins

Banned
Seth C said:
Yeah. Europe makes total sense though. Most of the mexican food I've acfually manages to found over there is somehow even less authentic than Taco Bell.
Click to expand...
I've seen a few Mexican restaurants in Europe and maybe one in New Zealand. They always look soul suckingly deserted that I've never had enough balls to walk in. You're braver than I.
 
B

bms2993

Banned
Sanjuro said:
Time to celebrate!

hF2ke9Y.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm all for Taco Bell every now and then. I love the hard shell taco supremes... but what IS that? Never more has this gif been appropriate:
joH3j.gif


On topic: Glad to see the franchise open up in other parts of the world. Not the best place in the world to eat, but still great when you have late night cravings.
 
S

Seth C

Member
Bulbo Urethral Baggins said:
I've seen a few Mexican restaurants in Europe and maybe one in New Zealand. They always look soul suckingly deserted that I've never had enough balls to walk in. You're braver than I.
Click to expand...

I went to one somewhere...dublin maybe? It was supposedly Tex Mex. Nothing was right. Same thing with a burrito shop in Florence. All the ingredients were technically there and yet, it didn't taste right at all. It always seems like the Mexican restaurants in Europe are run by people who have heard of Mexican food, looked it up online maybe, but never actually tasted it.
 
K

Kastrioti

Persecution Complex
Bread said:
I think you can see Taco Bell in the reflection of his glasses.
Click to expand...

All I see is a man with his longtime girlfriend/fiancee, pecs built like rocks, the strongest arm in the NFL and a confident smile.

Seth C said:
Yeah. Europe makes total sense though. Most of the mexican food I've acfually manages to found over there is somehow even less authentic than Taco Bell.
Click to expand...

Born and raised in Southern California and seeing the "Mexican" food selection in Michigan recently was depressing. If you're going to have Americanized Mexican food at least have Del Taco and they don't even have that.
 
J

JDSN

Banned
Hahahaha, people in my city love to go to every new shit american restaurant chain that opens here, only to stop going two months later, I predict this is gonna be a lot faster since its latin-themed.
 
D

Deleted member 309291

Unconfirmed Member
I loooove Taco Bell when I go to the US. But it doesn't make sense to eat it here in my country when I can get better and more food with the same amount of money. I'll still go every once in a while to fill my crunchwrap quota <3
 
B

Bulbo Urethral Baggins

Banned
Seth C said:
I went to one somewhere...dublin maybe? It was supposedly Tex Mex. Nothing was right. Same thing with a burrito shop in Florence. All the ingredients were technically there and yet, it didn't taste right at all. It always seems like the Mexican restaurants in Europe are run by people who have heard of Mexican food, looked it up online maybe, but never actually tasted it.
Click to expand...
I hear you. I remember I went to a Tex mex place in Jakarta once and I had the same feeling. Same ingredients. Totally different taste. I don't even know how that can happen. The rest of the works needs to catch up. If that takes taco bell, so be it.
 
T

theusedversion

Member
I'm kind of surprised this hasn't happened sooner. It seems that you can find Mexican style food just about anywhere in the world. Some of the best food I've ever had was at a small Mexican restaurant in Taiwan of all places.
 
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