Agreement Completed to Form Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op
Louisville, Ky. — March 10, 1999 —
Members of the Organizing Board of Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op®, LLC (UFPC®) announced today they completed the proposed agreement on March 1, 1999, to form a unified purchasing cooperative for restaurant products and equipment in the United States. On March 1, UFPC commenced operations, led by its newly appointed President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel E. Woodside.
UFPC operates independently and is jointly governed by representatives of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchisee groups and by Tricon. The core mission of UFPC is to provide the lowest possible sustainable store-delivered prices for restaurant products and equipment.
UFPC combines the purchasing power of Tricon’s company- and franchisee-owned restaurants, leveraging the system’s scale to drive cost savings and effectiveness. Annual purchasing volume for the co-op is expected to exceed $4 billion, making it the largest such purchasing cooperative of its kind in the quick-service restaurant industry.
The new organization will incorporate the best practices of the KFC National Purchasing Cooperative, Inc. (d/b/a FoodService Purchasing Cooperative, Inc.), which provided purchasing services to most KFC franchisees and many Taco Bell and Pizza Hut franchisees, and Tricon’s Supply Chain Management group, which provided purchasing services to all company-owned restaurants, many Taco Bell franchisee-owned restaurants, and most Pizza Hut franchisee-owned restaurants.
UFPC is headquartered in Louisville, Ky., and will have hub operations close to KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Restaurant Support Centers to best serve the needs of both franchisees and Tricon. The parties have also agreed to form a similar unified cooperative to provide purchasing services to both company- and franchisee-owned KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants in Canada.
The FoodService Purchasing Cooperative was purchasing over $600 million a year in restaurant products and equipment for its KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut franchisee owners. Since 1980, the FoodService Purchasing Cooperative has provided a model for the development of purchasing cooperatives in the food service industry.
Tricon is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of units, with nearly 30,000 restaurants around the world in 100 countries and territories. Tricon’s brands — KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell — are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican restaurant categories, respectively. Total worldwide system retail sales for the brands were more than $20 billion in 1997. (NYSE: YUM)
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