Pizza Hut
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Typical small town location in the U.S. Midwest |
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Typical location in Mexico, complete with motorcycles for pizza delivery |
Pizza Hut is a
fast-food restaurant chain and international
franchise based in
Dallas, Texas,
USA, specializing in American-style
pizza along with side dishes like
garlic bread. Pizza Hut is the world's largest pizza restaurant chain with nearly 34,000 restaurants, delivery-carry out units, and kiosks in 100 countries.
[Our Story, PizzaHut.com]Pizza Hut was founded by
Dan and Frank Carney in
Wichita, Kansas. The company gained national recognition in its first-ever advertising campaign, called "Putt Putt to Pizza Hut," which first debuted on American television in
1965. It was bought by
PepsiCo, Inc. in
1977.
Pizza Hut was "spun-off" from
Pepsi Cola, in October
1997, to Tricon Global Restaurants, which has been renamed
Yum! Brands, Inc.. The most distinct symbol of Pizza Hut is the trademarked design of the restaurant's roof, which is a red painted
Mansard roof; It is incorporated into the Pizza Hut logo. The current design was adopted in
1969, with a makeover in
1999.
Pizza Hut has never entered the
Italian market.
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Pizza Hut Express logo, sporting the franchise's old insignia. |
Smaller
Pizza Hut Express outlets, offering a reduced version of the menu, appear in malls, airport terminals, department stores, hotels, cafeterias, gas stations, movie theatres and other places. Often at these locations, cheese,
pepperoni, and Supreme Personal Pan Pizzas are premade for customers to pick up. Some of these are combined with express versions of
KFC and
Taco Bell.
Pizza Hut is currently opening new stores, and remodeling existing ones, into
Pizza Hut Italian Bistro. The Pizza Hut Italian Bistro is a "casual dining" restaurant whose menu adds 25 additional items to the classic Pizza Hut menu.
Pizza Hut is also testing the
Pizza Hut WingStreet format, which offers the pizza menu along with a variety of chicken wings.
Australian format
In
Australia, Pizza Hut has followed a different model—after an initial attempt to introduce Pizza Hut restaurants as in the
United States and the
United Kingdom, Australian Pizza Huts now generally operate as
take out and
delivery operations with minimal seating, although there are still some restaurants available for dining in. Originally, Australian Pizza Huts were comparable to their American counterparts, but were scaled back due to increased competition from other fast food chains. Australian Pizza Hut restaurants currently compete with
Domino's,
Pizza Haven,
Eagle Boys and various other pizza stores. The situation has been similar for the brand in neighbouring country
New Zealand. In Australia,
soya oil is used instead of vegetable oil for all pies, and
barbecue sauce is available as an alternative to tomato sauce as a topping base. Also, in the United States most Pizza Hut Stores will offer the option of changing sauces on Pizzas at no extra cost (BBQ, Pan, Sweet, etc.). (However most stores will be very reluctant and may even refuse to put "Thin Sauce" on any other crust due to cooking issues.)
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An advertisement for Pizza Hut's Pan Pizza |
The most commonly sold food at Pizza Hut restaurants is the "Pan Pizza", which usually comes in four different sizes (including Medium, Large, and the "Personal Pan Pizza", which is an individual serving sized pizza), in a variety of toppings (as well as "specialty" styles, including the Lover's Line and Supreme). Compared to most other commercially available pies, the Pan Pizza has a thick crust - soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside.
In addition to the Pan Pizza, Pizza Hut also sells Stuffed Crust (a hand tossed crust, with the outermost edge wrapped around a coil of string cheese), Hand-Tossed (closer to traditional pizzeria crusts), Thin 'N Crispy (Pizza Hut's original crust), 4forALL (four small pizzas), More4ALL (one round pizza, divided into four triangular parts, each part having 4 slices), Dippin' Strips (rectangular slices that you can dip in sauces), The Edge (lots of toppings and no crust), the Cheesy Twisted Crust (a breadstick as the crust with sauce and two cheeses), and the Cheesy Bites Pizza (seasoned stuffed crust bites surround the pizza). Currently, the 4forAll, More4All, Side Sampler, and Cheesy Bite promotions are all no longer in wide effect.
Other food items sold at many Pizza Huts include calzones ("P'zones"), buffalo wings (some locations are also co-branded "WingStreet" and offer more flavors), pasta, breadsticks, cinnamon sticks, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeño poppers. In the U.S.,
Canada, and most other countries,
Pepsi and other soft drinks made by PepsiCo are served. Most full-sized Pizza Hut restaurants also have a salad bar and/or a lunch buffet.
Pizza Hut has experimented with new products frequently. Less successful ones have been discontinued. These include Chicago Dish Pizza, Sicilian Pizza, and "Bigfoot", a large rectangular pie sold in the mid-1990's, which was promoted with commercials touting its size. However the Sicilian Pizza will be making a 2006 comeback as Pizza Hut restaurants are receiving shipments of Sicilian dough for their next new product, the Sicilian Lasagna Pizza.
WingStreet
WingStreet is an alternate format restaurant, owned and operated by Pizza Hut. They are commonly attached to, or incorporated into, Pizza Huts. WingStreet sells chicken wings, which are available in several flavours. One may choose between bone-in, bone-out (both breaded), or the new Traditional wing, which is a "naked" wing with no breading. The side items available are: WingStreet Taters (tater tots shaped like W's), fried mozzarella cheese sticks, and mini apple pies.
UK & Ireland
The menu has recently been simplified, there are now only four types of bases available, these are:
*Pan Pizza (The most popular deep pan cooked style).
*The Italian (A more traditional style pizza).
*The Edge (A really thin base with no crusts, cut into 16 squares, rather than traditional slices).
*Stuffed Crust (A large crust stuffed with cheese).
*Dipper (A large pizza cut into 16 chunky fingers served with 3 types of dip).
*Buffet (All you can eat 'under terms and conditions, for pizza only for £3.99 or for Pizza, Pasta and Salad it is £5.49; recently Pizza hut has extended its buffet to cover all 7 days, except for selected stores).
India
Pizza has become a very popular food in
India. Pizza Hut has opened outlets in most of the cities including
New Delhi,
Chandigarh,
Mumbai,
Ludhiana,
Kolkata,
Pune,
Cochin,
Hyderabad,
Bangalore,
Gurgaon,
Jalandhar,
Chennai,
Coimbatore,
Baroda,
Surat,
Indore etc. Pizza Hut advertising uses the catch line "Good times, Great Pizza". Menus are also catered for Indian taste. Many pizzas are spicy offerings such as "
Chicken Tikka" and "Tandoori
Paneer" varieties of pizza. The pizzas of both western and Indian recipes are offered.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, Pizza Hut is popular. Due to increasing demands, Pizza Hut outlets are situated in all the big cities like
Karachi,
Lahore,
Faisalabad,
Multan,
Gujranwala,
Peshawar and
Islamabad and many more on the way. It offers a wide variety of pizzas, combining western and eastern recipes to suit every taste.
Bangladesh
Soon after its launch, Pizza Hut gained a lot of popularity overnight in Dhaka. Within a year of the success in
Dhaka, Pizza Hut opened their 2nd outlet in the country in
Chittagong. The
Dhaka outlet which has seating capacity of 220 persons, is the largest outlet of Pizza Hut in the subcontinent.
Philippines
Pizza Hut Philippines has become very popular in the Philippines. Though it is only available mainly in
Metro Manila, it is also found in
gas stations outbound and inbound Manila, with some in Laguna and Bulacan. There is also a small number of them in big provincial cities.
Israel
In Israel, Pizza Hut is
kosher in order to accommodate the Jewish people. Everywhere else in the world, Pizza Hut pizza is not certified as Kosher.
There are two initial catch lines which are:
*Pinaka-pizza
*Great pizza under one roof
Mainland China
The first Pizza Hut in
Mainland China was the restaurant at
Dongzhimen in
Beijing, opened on
December 1 1990. As of 2005 there are nearly 200 restaurants in more than 50 cities,such as almost all the provincial capitals and large cities such as
Shanghai,
Tianjin,
Chongqing,
Guangzhou,
Nanjing,
Shenzhen,
Hangzhou,
Wuhan and
Changsha. Also, in China, Pizza Hut is marketed as a Dine-In Restaurant, unlike the United States, which is more of a Pizza Delivery service, which sometimes has a dine in service.
Pizza Hut does not have an official international mascot, but at one time, there were commercials in the United States that featured Pizza Head (1993 to 1997).
Pizza Head was a slice of pizza with toppings rearranged to make a face. These advertising campaigns from San Francisco's
Goodby Silverstein & Partners were directed by
Walter Williams in a style similar to his "The
Mr. Bill Show", an early series of
Saturday Night Live skits.In Australia during the Mid to late 1990s, the advertising mascot was a delivery boy named Dougie, with boyish good looks who, upon delivering pizza to his father, would hear the catchphrase "Here's a tip, be good to your mother".
In recent years, Pizza Hut has had various celebrity spokespeople, including
Jessica Simpson,
the Muppets and
Damon Hill. Recent commercials have
Queen Latifah providing the voiceover.
The
1990 NES game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, came with a coupon for a free pizza. The game was filled with Pizza Hut advertising and pizza that would refill your life.
Slogans
*"Pizza Hut, oh yeah and nothin' but!"
*"Makin' it great!"
*"You'll love the stuff we're made of."
*"The best pizzas under one roof."
*"Gather 'round the good stuff."
*"Go for the good stuff"
*"Stop and Smell the Pizza."
*"You do the Math, We'll do the Pizza."
*"Eat. Laugh. Share." (Pizza Hut Canada)
*"Go Deep"
*"Hit the Hut"
*"Who called the hut?"
*"Call Five-Two-Four-Four-Four-Four-Four(524-4444), Pizza Hut Delivery's really great" (United States. The general phone number one can dial to be connected to the nearest Pizza Hut location.)
*"Nine-Four-Eight-One Double-One-Double-One(9481-1111)...Pizza Hut Delivery" (Australia. The phone number is for
Sydney delivery orders; the words were sung to the tune of the
William Tell Overture and slightly modified for each city. One-Three-Double one-Double Six, is more widely used.)
*"Great pizzas, great times"
*"Grab a slice of the action"
*"In good company"
Sponsorship
In 2005 Pizza Hut sponsored
The Simpsons on the British TV station
Channel 4. The adverts often contained the catchphrase "Who's called the Hut?" At the same time, but with a deal that started years earlier,
Domino's Pizza sponsored
The Simpsons on British TV station
Sky One.
Pizza Hut has also been a longtime sponsor of the popular "Book It!" program, which encourages reading in
American schools. Those who read often are rewarded with Pizza Hut coupons offering free or discounted menu items.
In the early 1990s, as part of PepsiCo's sponsorship of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Pizza Hut was included in the acknowledgement, along with Taco Bell and KFC, which PepsiCo owned at the time.
In more recent history, Pizza Hut's
delivery drivers have been organizing into unions [
1]. These drivers cite conditions as 'deplorable' with the average US driver getting paid $0.50(USD) per delivery (while Pizza Hut, on average, charges the customer $1.50(USD) per delivery), compared to a national average elsewhere of $1.25 per delivery [
2]. Such unions include
SEIU and
APDD. In addition to wages, many Pizza Hut drivers have safety and job security concerns.
In
New Zealand, Pizza hut (managed by Restaurant Brands) along with other fast food companies is facing union pressure from
Supersizemypay.com and the
Unite Union to improve wage conditions and give workers secure hours.
*The oldest running Pizza Hut is in
Manhattan, Kansas*Pizza Hut delivered the first pizzas to the
International Space Station in 2001.
*The company uses more than 700 million pounds of
pepperoni and more than 525 million pounds of
tomatoes each year. If the pepperoni slices were laid side by side, they would stretch twice around the
Earth and all the way to the
moon.
*More than 300 million pounds of
cheese are used by the company each year, making it the world's largest user.
* The true reason it was called 'Pizza Hut' is because when Dan and Frank Carney got the sign to put in front of their first restaurant in 'Wichita, Kansas' there was only enough room for a three letter word after Pizza. The original location can still be seen on the campus of
Wichita State University.
* In the film
Spaceballs, one of the villains is named Pizza the
Hutt* In the
1989 film
Back to the Future Part II, the McFly family is having a Pizza Hut dehydrated pizza for dinner after being fully hydrated by a
Black & Decker Hydrator. One side of the pizza has pepperoni, the other side has green peppers.
* A Pizza Hut pizza can be seen in the
1991 movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
* When
The Land Before Time was first released on
VHS, the Pizza Hut commercial was shown before the film.
* In the TV show Friends, the character Ross had his first bachelor party in the basement of a Pizza Hut.
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Pizza Hut "Dippin' Strips" ad |
*
Domino's Pizza*
Papa John's*
List of restaurant chains*http://www.pizzahut.com - Official Website
*http://www.pizzahut.co.uk - UK Pizza Hut Website
*http://www.pizzahut.com/about/international/ - Directory of international websites
*http://www.cmel.faa.gov/HEALTH/Nutritn/pizza.htm - Nutrition profile of slice of Pizza Hut pizza
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G7IdhjBkrk - Pizza Hut commercial (with the first four minutes of
The Land Before Time) at
YouTube
