Pizza Brands Are Thriving

Cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. continue to increase by the hour, and schools and businesses in many states have been forced to shut down or go virtual to accommodate stay-at-home orders. For families attempting to home-school and work-from-home at the same time, there is increasing pressure on meals to provide a satisfying reset for everyone in the family. And with most dine-in restaurants closed, many families are turning to takeout and delivery. Once a special occasion, some families may now be hosting Family Pizza Night multiple times a week, making pizza one of the few segments to thrive during the coronavirus crisis.

While businesses in virtually every industry are laying off employees in record numbers, pizza restaurants are actually experiencing a shortage of delivery drivers. 

“We’re looking to hire five to 10 more team members and managers per store,” said Colleen Glendinning, the director of advertising and media at pizza franchise Toppers. “With 67 stores, that creates potentially 650-plus jobs.” 

Toppers is not the only major pizza brand hiring. Pizza Hut has confirmed they’re looking to hire 30,000 new full- and part-time employees. Papa John’s is looking to hire 20,000, and Domino’s 10,000. 

Glendinning appreciates that her brand is lucky enough to have a model that complements the current restrictions on consumers. 

“We’re lucky to be a delivery-driven model, and feel a heightened sense of responsibility to those in our communities,” she said. “As the health and safety of our employees and customers remains top priority, we’ve implemented curbside pickup, no-contact delivery, and our IT tech team has added the capability for customers to tip online at most of our locations. For delivery, it can be a completely no-contact exchange.” 

Given their relative success during this crisis, Toppers is now empowering franchisees to provide support for their local communities. Toppers is currently offering free small pizzas to students to replace school lunches. They’re projected to give away roughly 10,000 pizzas. 

“There are a lot of parents and a lot of families right now that rely on those school lunches to be able to feed their children," said Eric Phillips, General Manager at Toppers Pizza* in Fox Point. "We're taking that a step further, and we're picking up that slack basically."

Free lunches for students is the largest initiative Toppers has introduced to support communities, but it isn’t the only one. 

“Many of our franchisees are executing various community-driven initiatives at their stores,” Glendinning said. “Some are offering a free pizza to people who bring in a receipt from the purchase of a gift card from another local small business, others are hosting food banks. We really are all in this together during this time.”