PIZZA THE HUTT
Posted on 11/04/2025 6:56:07 AM PST by Red Badger
Key Points
Yum Brands will explore strategic options for Pizza Hut, which has struggled in recent years.
Potential outcomes could include an outright divestiture, selling a stake in the chain or a joint venture.
The chain’s share of the U.S. pizza market has shrunk from 22.6% in 2019 to 18.7% in 2024, according to Barclays.
===============================================================
Yum Brands on Tuesday announced it will explore strategic options for Pizza Hut.
“The Pizza Hut team has been working hard to address business and category challenges; however, Pizza Hut’s performance indicates the need to take additional action to help the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside of Yum! Brands,” Yum CEO Chris Turner said in a statement.
The company has not set a deadline or definitive timetable for the review process. While Yum did not specify what the review’s “range of strategic options” include, potential outcomes could be an outright divestiture, a joint venture or the sale of a stake in the chain.
“We do think the business can be positioned for even greater success in the future,” Turner said on the company’s earnings conference call. “In some markets, there may be a multi-year effort that is required to reposition it as the leading pizza brand in those markets, and it’s possible that those efforts may best be done under a different structure, potentially under outside ownership.”
Pizza Hut has been a part of a triumvirate with KFC and Taco Bell for decades, dating back to when PepsiCo still owned the fast-food chains. The beverage giant spun off the restaurants in 1997, christening the new company Tricon Global, later renamed to Yum.
Tuesday’s announcement caps years of struggle for Pizza Hut.
On Tuesday, Yum reported that the chain’s same-store sales fell 1% during the third quarter, fueled by a 6% drop in its home market. During the same quarter, Taco Bell and KFC reported same-store sales growth of 7% and 3%, respectively.
Before the pandemic, Pizza Hut tried to shrug off its reputation as a dine-in venue and reposition itself as an option for pizza delivery and carryout in the U.S. When Covid-19 lockdowns shuttered restaurants, the chain saw its sales skyrocket, like the rest of its pizza industry. But once restrictions loosened, so-called pizza fatigue settled in, leading to another sales slump.
And now, with consumers dining out less often, Pizza Hut is facing increased competition for a smaller set of diners. The chain’s share of the U.S. pizza market has shrunk from 22.6% in 2019 to 18.7% in 2024, ceding customers to rival Domino’s Pizza , according to Barclays.
In the wake of the pullback in consumer spending, other restaurant companies have recently shed challenged parts of their businesses in an effort to improve their balance sheets.
Starbucks on Monday announced it is selling a majority stake in its embattled China business and will form a joint venture with Boyu Capital. Last month, Jack in the Box divested Del Taco for $115 million, well short of the $575 million it paid for the chain less than four years ago. And Krispy Kreme sold its remaining stake in Insomnia Cookies this summer to focus on growing its U.S. business profitably.
We have all of the big chains near our house, practically within walking distance.............
Long-winded way of saying, “The idiots we hired to run the place ran it into a ditch.”.............
Another well known name getting asset stripped.
And if you have a double, or sometimes a triple, it's worse because you have to make sure the right people get the right stuff. A couple of years ago they changed the labeling system. There are no labels. Everything is just listed on a single ticket.
They will win the Franchise War.
Someone should buy it and return it to what Pizza Hut used to be.
Bring back the lunch buffet and the red plastic glasses.
I can’t believe that they didn’t make money this way.
-PJ
They chose to follow the crowd of competitors and open hole-in-the-wall delivery only stores................
Bring it back as a sit down place again.
We had a CiCi’s pizza buffet here but it closed..............
I guess their desire to go back to the 1970’s recipe never happened. Piss poor management kills yet another successful company.
They sold off all those old restaurants and most have been torn down or remodeled into cannabis dispensaries or vaping stores...............
I remember when in small town America, you took dates to Pizza hut. It was the best chain pizza and really nice.
They did not deliver and had to be dragged into Pizza delivery and they hated it.
Now their pizza is in the bottom tier. I don’t understand how they forgot how to make good pizza.
At one time Pizza Hut had good pizza but sometime in the 2000s, around the same time they got rid of their nice dine in locations for cheap carry out places, the food quality just dropped and it’s never gotten better.
Maybe get rid of all the extraneous crap and focus on the basics. Concentrate on making a great pizza. Enough with the gimmicks.
Why not turn the Pizza Hut restaurants into food courts with options for Pizza, KFC, TACO Bell products and burgers.
You hit the nail on the head. When Pepsi ran it, it was good. When it spun off to Yum, it has decreased ever since.
Thats when they got spun into Yum Brands and it was all corporate cheapening to boost profits after that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.