Jeffrey Bernstein: Great. Thank you very much. Just following up on that, you did talk about a more challenging macro into ‘24. And I assume that’s above and beyond the Middle East. So specific to the U.S. again, just any change in behavior you’re seeing at any of your three core brands, consumer trading around the menu. Specifically, I know that from television advertising each of three big brands has what appears to be pretty compelling value offers. I’m just wondering how those value offers are performing the consumer demand for them, maybe the mix shift of value today, however, you define that versus where it’s been in years past. Any color on that would be great. Thank you.
David Gibbs: Sure. Yes, just to build on my comments about the Taco Bell business in the U.S. and how it’s set up to thrive in this environment, the value menu that we’ve recently tweaked in the U.S. to be $3 and under is actually over indexing a little bit with consumers versus test and expectations, which isn’t a bad thing because it’s a real competitive advantage for us and it’s designed to maintain franchisee profitability. So there may be some small shifts in consumer behaviors, but as I said on previous calls, we just are slowly returning to a more normal operating environment where value is always important in the category as is convenience. And food innovation and great ability. And we think we just win on all those fronts with Taco Bell and why we’re excited about 2024.
Operator: Our next question comes from David Tarantino of Baird.
David Tarantino: Hi. Good morning. I just want to come back to your comp outlook for the year. And I know you mentioned it several times, some of the reasons you expect things to maybe get better as the year goes on. But I’m hoping that you can maybe elaborate on your view there, whether you think it’s the macro getting better, or you think it’s more what you have in your initiative pipeline. And then I guess a second part of the question would be if that doesn’t materialize the way that you anticipate, do you have levers to pull to still deliver the profit growth you’re expecting for the year? Thanks.
David Gibbs: Well, in terms of the comp outlook, obviously the Middle East creates some uncertainty for the environment. And Chris just talked about one of the levers that we have to pull, which is improving our efficiency and holding G&A flat year-over-year. But the bigger picture is we’re really excited about the initiative that each of the brands has going just to give you a glimpse. Taco Bell in 2024 is going to have twice the innovation on the calendar that they had in 2023. And I’ve obviously seen a lot of this innovation and have excited about the impact it’s going to have with consumers. I mentioned the fact that in the US, it’s a brand that thrives in a value environment. But around the world, just to give you some more color on Q4, we have positive transaction growth in Q4 despite the impact that the Middle East had on our overall business.
So we think the year sets up where, obviously, the Middle East is a big variable, but putting that aside, we think the year sets up to be another great year for Yum! all around the world with sales growth. And a lot of it is driven by us leaning in more on what we call category entry points, opening up new lines of business for us. I’m excited in a couple of days to head to South Africa to see the great work that that team is doing in terms of launching breakfast and the beverage work that they’re doing that’s really having a positive impact on their sales. But we’ve got stories like that going on all around.
Chris Turner : And then David, as you mentioned, we do have multiple levers to ensure that we land the ultimate component of the algorithm, which is at least 8% core operating profit growth. We’ve talked about the flat G&A plan, and we also referenced in the comments some of the productivity projects that we have going on. So we’re laser focused on that component as well and have plenty of levers we can pull.
Matt Morris: Operator, we have time for one more question.
Operator: Our final question of today comes from Dennis Geiger of UBS.
Dennis Geiger: Great. Thanks, guys. Just another on Taco Bell, I guess, David, in light of the strength and the multiyear trends in December and then the initiatives that you highlight, I guess is it fair for Taco Bell given the fact that you’re seeing pretty good strength across consumers for the brand plus the initiatives that you could see sort of a widening market share or traffic share outperformance gap at Taco Bell this year given the environment and given the plans you have in place, if anything, to share on that?
David Gibbs: Yes. Thank you, Dennis. Yes. So look, Taco Bell in Q4 just to put a little bit more numbers around it, put up a two year number of a plus 15, again, going back to sometimes we forget what we were lapped and we were lapping massive Mexican pizza performance. They were able to lap that and grow on that in a challenging consumer environment. We think that favors them. And absolutely what you said is absolutely true. We’re constantly looking to gain market share. And the Taco Bell business has been doing that for now for many years. And we think this is an environment that favors them. So it couldn’t be more excited about the growth that Taco Bell has ahead of it in the U.S. And we’ve really just begun with that brand.
