(MONEY Magazine) – David Novak, vice chairman and president of Tricon, is no stranger to creating and promoting big-time brands. At PepsiCo, Novak worked on Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew and two of the chains that would be included in Tricon--KFC and Pizza Hut. Now the heir-apparent to 73-year-old Tricon chairman and CEO Andrall Pearson is trying to make Tricon a name that investors will remember. He recently discussed Tricon's future with MONEY.

Q. Your brands have been around for years, but Tricon is a new public company, spun off from PepsiCo in 1997. What challenges does that give rise to?

A. Great companies have a history of delivering results year after year. Since we've only been in business for 18 months, that's something only time will take care of.

Q. Investors were excited when you nabbed the promotional tie-in to the new Star Wars movie. But recent weakness in your stock seems to be a result of concerns about the less-than-titanic success of the movie. Is it worth the trouble?

A. We benefit from an image standpoint, tying into one of the hottest movie properties in history. While the results have been less than what we thought, it's not going to affect our performance.

Q. One of the reasons McDonald's restaurants have higher cash flows than their competitors--including you--is that they serve breakfast. Are we going to get a breakfast pizza?

A. We don't think the world is waiting for a breakfast pizza or a KFC breakfast. When we enter the breakfast business, which will be down the road, the likely way will be to acquire a breakfast brand.

Q. So how are you going to increase sales in the existing businesses?

A. By going after lunch and dinner business. At Taco Bell, we just launched Grande Meals, which include 10 tacos or burritos for $9.99 at dinner. We're launching sandwiches at KFC to go after the lunch business. And we're testing [Pizza Hut] personal pan pizzas and offering them inside Taco Bells and KFCs.

Q. Some would say that Tricon's P/E is so much lower than McDonald's because investors have less confidence in analysts' projections for Tricon. How do you build that confidence?

A. We have to continue to deliver consistent results. If you look at how far we've come in the past two years, most people would say the turnaround has been remarkable.

--D.M.