It would seem as if we’re quickly reaching the end of another era. There are plenty of pizza delivery chains like Dominos and Papa Johns. Pizza Hut does well with delivery themselves, but one thing they had that separated them from everyone else was the sit-down format. Bring your family to Pizza Hut and sit down together and enjoy the meal.
But it seems as if things are rapidly changing. Pizza Hut now says that they plan to close hundreds of their dine-in restaurants to focus mainly on delivery. They want to provide a faster product to keep up with the demand. Less people are sitting down to eat, so the change is needed to save the company money.
Other establishments are also changing themselves to be more convenience oriented. We’re getting busier, so quick pizzas out the door are undoubtedly going to sell more. By moving away from the restaurant model, they hope to drive more sales, according to Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed. Yum! Brands owns Pizza Hut among many other restaurants and fast food places.
“We plan to lean in to accelerate the transition of our Pizza Hut U.S. estate to a more modern delivery- and carryout-focused asset base,” he said. “This will ultimately position the Pizza Hut brand for many years of faster growth in the U.S. We view this as a positive move for the brand,” he said.
Cost Cutting
Pizza Hut plans to cut around 500 restaurants across the country. It’s only a small number of the 7,496 stores they have, but most aren’t sit-in restaurants. This is a way for them to cut costs and staying relevant in a time when pizza delivery is trying to reinvent itself. There’s no doubt that pizza, while always popular, has been seeing slumping sales as of late.
With new apps like Grubhub and Doordash, you can order from just about any restaurant in your community. That means you no longer have to go and sit down in a restaurant to enjoy their food. This is a convenience that might do to dining restaurants was Netflix did to Blockbuster. You offer a new convenience and people move forward with what’s the easiest.
Just like Dominos did a few years ago, Pizza Hut has released a new recipe for their famous Original Pan Pizza. They’re also trying out new pick-up options much like Little Caesars is doing today. You can order online and pick up your hot-n-ready at your leisure or on the way home from work. It’s pizza made easy.
