Dallas--Tricon Global Restaurants, franchisor of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, inked an agreement to purchase A&W and Long John Silver's restaurants from Yorkshire Global Restaurants for $270 million in cash. Tricon will also assume $50 million in debt. The deal grew out of a licensing deal Tricon made with Yorkshire in 2000 to test co-branding the two companies' concepts in several locations. -New York Post
Tricon has also teamed up with Memphis-based Back Yard Burgers to add upscale burgers to the menus of 10 of Tricon's KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell units. If all goes well, the agreement allows Tricon to co-brand as many as 500 more restaurants. -QSR
