December 2018 - Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd on Tuesday has reached an agreement to expand the Taco Bell brand in New Zealand and Australia. According to the company, the deal dictates the construction of more than 60 new Taco Bell restaurants in New Zealand and Australia before 30 June 2024, the company said in a statement. Restaurant Brands already owns and operates 36 Taco Bell stores spread throughout Hawaii and Guam, as well as the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Carl's Jr. brands in New Zealand. The company dropped Starbucks earlier this year.

Restaurant Brands group chief executive Russel Creedy said the company wanted to build a franchise system with the brand. This suggests a change of direction for the company, which has previously operated the majority of its outlets under management with the exception of some regional Pizza Hut stores. Taco Bell previously entered Australia under a different operator in 1997 with a stand-alone store and a few store-within-a-store concepts in KFC branches, but by 2005 they had all gone. The brand has never before been tried in New Zealand, where Mexican food has become increasingly popular in recent years with chains such as Mexicali Fresh, Mexico and Zambrero all doing well.

In October 2018, Restaurant Brands announced that it was in takeover talks with Mexico-based Finaccess Capital which had made a $578 million bid for a 75 percent controlling stake in the NZX-listed company.