Yum Brands says Taco Bell and KFC concept tests are already paying off

A coffee-and-frozen-drink counter at Taco Bell and a sauce-first KFC offshoot are no longer side experiments. Yum Brands said both tests are already helping the business, a sign that the next wave of growth may come from formats that change how crews prep, pour, and staff the line.

On the company’s April 29 earnings call, CEO Chris Turner said Live Más Café and Saucy were bolstering results. The numbers explain why management is leaning in: Yum posted 6% global system sales growth and 3% global same-store sales growth in the first quarter of 2026. Taco Bell U.S. same-store sales rose 8%, KFC reported 6% system sales growth and record first-quarter unit development, and Yum said net new unit growth reached 5%.

For Taco Bell, the test is centered on beverages. Yum said in September 2025 that Taco Bell would open 30 new Live Más Café locations in 2025, building around more than 30 signature drinks, including specialty coffees, Churro Chillers, Refrescas, and Dirty Mountain Dew Baja Blast Dream Sodas. That points to a different kind of shift inside the restaurant: more labor tied to drink assembly, more prep for cold and blended beverages, and a service model that has to move a lot more than tacos and sides through the same space.

Saucy by KFC is moving on a similar track, but with a different operational twist. Yum has said the pilot location was producing more than double the average sales of traditional KFC U.S. restaurants and ranked among the top 15 units in the 3,600-plus U.S. system. The company planned a phased expansion to at least 20 stores, and later said it was looking at additional locations in the Southeast United States, including Florida, through converted PDQ leases. That is more than a menu test. It is a format and real-estate play that could reshape kitchen layouts, sauce handling, and how crews are trained to run the store.

For workers, the upside is that successful concepts often become templates for more openings, which can mean more shifts, more restaurants, and more chances to move up. The downside is that every new station and signature item adds pressure on line cooks, cashiers, and shift leaders to learn faster and keep service moving. Chris Turner, who is now running Yum after the company’s June 2025 announcement that he would become CEO effective October 1, inherited a system that is rewarding experiments that can be scaled. If Live Más Café and Saucy keep performing, the changes will show up less in investor presentations than in the daily routines of Taco Bell and KFC crews.