Pizza Hut Franchise History
Pizza Hut is the world's largest pizza franchise. Its success stems from its ability to create recipes for pizzas that people like as well as its ability to say ahead of the curve in the changing the world of pizza businesses. Although the chain was first successful as a sit-down restaurant, Pizza Hut evolved to become one of the first restaurants to offer pizza delivery. More recently, Pizza Hut franchises have started to build fewer sit-down restaurants and more smaller stores from which pizza can be delivered or carried out. This has allowed for more stores in more areas with less staff.
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Early History
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Pizza Hut started in 1958 when a couple of brothers borrowed $600 from their mother to start a pizza restaurant. The brothers opened their first restaurant by the Wichita State University campus in Kansas. The brothers, Frank and Dan Carney, were students at the school.
It did not take long for Pizza Hut to branch out. Due to the success at the Wichita location, the first franchised store opened up in Topeka, Kan., one year later. By 1966, Pizza Hut established a large home office in Wichita to help oversee the 145 Pizza Hut franchise restaurants that were established.
Types
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One of the reasons why Pizza Hut has been so successful for so long is because it offers so many different types of pizzas, sometimes even based on where the restaurant is located. Pizza Hut has set itself apart from some of its competitors because it has allowed franchise owners autonomy in deciding some of the items they will carry on their menus.
Whereas most pizza restaurants have the same menu at every restaurant, Pizza Hut franchise owners are free to use different kinds of toppings from different suppliers. While there are differences in ingredients, the basic elements in each pizza are the same. This allows consumers to get the familiar taste they love, but also allows franchise owners to branch out. -
Marketing
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Pizza Hut's first ever commercial included the jingle "Putt Putt to the Pizza Hut," which encouraged people to get into their cars and putt putt on over to the restaurant. This 1965 commercial came out one year after Pizza Hut designers created the inner and outer design of Pizza Hut restaurants. The architecture of these restaurants came to become one of Pizza Hut's best marketing tools, as the design of the roof soon became synonymous with the restaurant itself.
Each Pizza Hut that was built for many years included this red roof. When the first international franchise opened in Costa Rica in 1972, this red roof made the franchise recognizable. Over the next four years, 100 more international franchises opened. Each franchise was required to follow the building plan developed a decade earlier. This made the Pizza Hut franchises recognizable all over the world.
Size
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It didn't take long for Pizza Hut to become the No. 1 pizza restaurant chain in the world. In 1971, only 13 years after the Carney brothers first borrowed the money to build the first Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut was the world's most successful pizza restaurant in terms of sales as well as in the number of restaurants around the world.
Pizza Hut has aggressively sought out franchise owners. One of the ways the company has made its franchise more attractive to franchise owners is by aligning itself with other restaurants. Pizza Hut became a part of the Yum! Franchising group. Other restaurants such as Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Long John Silvers are also part of this network. This grouping together of franchises has allowed franchise owners to increase their potential for income by having both Pizza Hut and Taco Bell items for sale in the same restaurant.
Effects
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Thanks to the success in sales that Pizza Hut has experienced during its history, franchise owners have been able to find ways to give back to its consumers. One of Pizza Hut's most popular programs for many years has been the Book IT! program, which rewards students with free pizzas for meeting reading goals.
Pizza Hut franchises also set up mobile pizza units to provide free meals to people who have been devastated by natural disasters and to those who volunteered to help them. Such was the case in Florida in 1992 when Pizza Hut franchises gave away more than 120,000 free meals to people affected by Hurricane Andrew.
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