Pizza Hut has been the millstone around Restaurant Brand’s neck for the past few years, but the fast food giant’s faith in the pizza chain is starting to pay off with an upgraded profit forecast of an 87% rise over last year’s first half.

The company announced the profit upgrade today, saying it expects its half year net profit after tax (excluding non trading items) for the 28 weeks ending September 14 to be about $8.7 million.

This is $4.1 million up on the same period last year – a jump of 87%.

The company has cited a continued turnaround in turnaround in the financial performance of the Pizza Hut business as a major contributor to the improved profitability, combined with sustained strong sales growth in the KFC brand.

Sluggish sales at Pizza Hut over the past couple of years have dragged down the company’s overall performance, but it has stuck with the franchise while closing the worst-performing stores and focusing on margin management at lower sales volumes and improving sales in a competitive environment.

The company – which also owns the New Zealand arm of Starbucks - will unveil it second quarter sales figures next week, with the half year profit announcement due on October 16.

Further down the line, the company is forecasting a full year result of around $15 million, up on the previous year’s $11.7 million.

But it did warn that it will be rolling over a strong second half result for the prior year and it was not expecting the second half performance lift for the current year to be as strong.