Pizza Hut’s biggest franchisee praises rebrand plan

NPC International, the largest franchisee of Pizza Hut in the United States, indicated in its third-quarter earnings call this week that the chain’s proposed rebranding plan and menu overhaul would be welcome among Pizza Hut operators. “We are excited to launch this massive initiative, which is expected to totally change the way consumers view Pizza Hut,” chief executive Jim Schwartz said. “Most every touch point of our brand will be overhauled, from our food offerings to our ingredients, our crew uniforms, our packaging, our menus, our website and our Parmesan packets.” For its Sept. 30-ended third quarter, NPC reported a 0.7-percent decrease in same-store sales at its 1,266 Pizza Hut restaurants. That compared favorably to a 3.6-percent decline a year earlier, but year-to-date the company still has reported a 3.7-percent same-store sales decrease, which is rolling over a 3.2-percent decline from the first nine months of 2013. Like NPC, many of Pizza Hut’s franchisees have struggled to grow sales over the past two years, which prompted the brand to initiate a new positioning, scheduled to debut this week. The menu will change significantly to include dozens more options for consumers to customize their pizzas, including 10 new crust flavors, five new sauce flavors, and five new “drizzles” for adding flavor to the menu items. Several new signature pizzas will also join the menu. NPC’s Schwartz noted that an overhauled menu could give Pizza Hut the leeway to back away from a marketing plan dominated by aggressive discounting and pricing. “We know that promotional strategies centered solely on price points will not ultimately drive the brand’s value to the consumer long-term,” Schwartz said. NPC also operates 144 franchised locations of Wendy’s, which it purchased from the franchisor over the past few years.