FILE PHOTO: A view of a Pizza Hut store, in London, Britain, December 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mina Kim/File Photo

(Reuters) -Yum Brands said on Tuesday it was exploring strategic options for its Pizza Hut chain as the unit struggles to keep pace in a highly competitive fast-food industry vying for sales from a stressed consumer.

"Pizza Hut's performance indicates the need to take additional action to help the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside of Yum Brands," Yum Brands' new CEO, Chris Turner, said in a statement.

The chain's sales have lagged Yum Brands' other prominent units, Taco Bell and KFC International, falling for seven consecutive quarters. In comparison, Taco Bell last reported negative comparable sales in June 2020.

Pizza Hut accounts for about 11% of Yum Brands' operating profits, compared with about 38% for Taco Bell's U.S. business.

Several quarters of price hikes at restaurants, sticky inflation and economic uncertainty have forced consumers to become more wary about dining out as they look to stretch their budgets. Still, pizzas are viewed as a value-option to feed families.

Industry giant Domino's Pizza said in October that although fast-food traffic was slowing, consumers were still seeking out its pizzas, helped by promotions and new menu items, as well as its delivery partnerships with third-party aggregators such as Doordash and UberEats.

While Pizza Hut has also offered value deals such as various personal pizzas for $5 and $2, "an insufficient value message amid a competitive value landscape resulted in transaction softness," company veteran and former CEO David Gibbs said in August.

Packaged food giant PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in 1977, but spun off the chain along with KFC and Taco Bell in 1997 to create a restaurants company, which took on the name Yum Brands in 2002.

A deadline to complete Pizza Hut's strategic review has not been set, and there was no assurance that the process would result in a transaction, Yum Brands said on Friday.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum and Koyena Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)