Coronavirus Update: Yum Works With Franchisees On Payments; Workers, Mayors Impact Food Production

As the coronavirus pandemic impacts sales, Yum Brands is working to help some franchisees and halting its share repurchase program.

The quick-service restaurant (QSR) company said in a filing its comparable-store sales will likely fall in Q1 in a range of mid- to high-single digits, Bloomberg reported.

Yum said, according to the report, that it is “working with franchisees who need more access to capital and are in good standing with the company to provide assistance, including grace-periods for certain near-term payments where necessary.”

The company’s restaurant network is said to be broadly franchised.

The company said, per the report, that it has 7,000 eateries around the globe that are shuttered. Business is restricted to drive-thru, carryout and delivery in the United States and select other markets. And the firm noted that the impact on sales is very different by region. Restaurant firms, for their part, have been among the most impacted as COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, interrupts life around the globe.

Meanwhile, some poultry workers in the United States have walked off the job, while some mayors in South America have created difficulty for food production, Bloomberg reported. Two dozen workers at a chicken producer’s 600-person facility in Georgia, for instance, participated in a walkout. And a meat processing worker received a positive coronavirus test result at another company’s plant.

In another region, some mayors in important agricultural regions of Brazil are stopping transportation to help stop the virus from spreading. The Canarana mayor, in one case, stopped trucking to grain ports. The Rondonopolis mayor, in another case, decreed that mills halt operations.

And, in Argentina, a local mayor prohibited trucks from an important part of the Parana River grain center.

Also, Colombian presidential policy indicates that individuals who have involvement in agriculture supply chains are able to move about freely. But the general manager of one firm noted, per the report, that some mayors are going against that decree.