Restaurant conglomerate Yum Brands, owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, has announced it will split its China operations into a separate company after being pressured for years by investment analysts and investors over growing weakness in the region, The New York Times reported, citing a statement from the company. Average sales of a KFC store in China are now US$1.2 million, down from US$1.7 million in 2012, when the first in a string of food safety scandals surfaced. The new company, Yum China, will operate about 6,900 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants, whose combined revenue of US$6.9 billion surpasses the US$6.3 in revenue from all of Yum’s other operations.