The chief executive of Pizza Hut UK is to focus his efforts on revitalising the brand through retail park restaurants and expanding the home delivery service.
The group is planning to open 30 to 50 new delivery units per year, beginning next year. It currently operates 300 delivery outlets in addition to 400 restaurants in the UK.
Pizza Hut UK would not be drawn on figures, but said that it would not be “unreasonable” to match Domino Pizza’s 553 units.
Domino’s is targeting 50 new openings every year until it reaches 1,000.
The group is also expanding its offering to include pizzas such as the thin-crust rocket and prosciutto pizza - the Tuscani - which is “more aspirational”.
In an interview with FT Weekend, Jens Hofma added: “We shouldn’t just be a pizza concept. People come to Pizza Hut because it’s quite a social experience. They come with their families, they come with groups of friends or work colleagues.
“Without having a huge range you want to be sufficiently inclusive so that people who don’t like pizza will still have a choice. You don’t want them to have the veto of the group not coming to Pizza Hut.”
The Independent on Sunday sees Lisa Markwell reviewing the new-look Pizza Hut, where, although it’s “better than I remember” but finds that the staff struggle with pronouncing the Italian words on the menu and the chain “stuck in the middle ground between the high-volume world of fast food and the more relaxed, discerning restaurants it hopes to emulate”.
FT Weekend, P.12
The Independent on Sunday, P.25
