Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pizza TV Television Commercial from 2001.
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. The company is known for its Italian-American cuisine menu including pizza and pasta, as well as side dishes and desserts. Pizza Hut has over 15,000 locations worldwide as of 2015, and is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., one of the world's largest restaurant companies.
Pizza Hut was founded in June 1958 by two Wichita State University students, brothers Dan and Frank Carney, as a single location in Wichita, Kansas.[2] PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in 1977.[3] Before closing in 2015, the oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut was in Manhattan, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggieville near Kansas State University. The first Pizza Hut restaurant east of the Mississippi River opened in Athens, Ohio in 1966 by Lawrence Berberick and Gary Meyers.
Pizza Hut's international presence includes Canada and Mexico in North America, India (not in the Pizza Hut division, but in the Yum! India division),[4][5] Bangladesh,[6][7] Pakistan, Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador,[8] and Nicaragua, and its Asian presence includes Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China (not in Pizza Hut division, but in the Yum! China Division), Hong Kong, South Korea, Myanmar, and Macau. Pizza Hut was one of the first American franchises to open in Iraq.[9]
The company announced a rebrand that began on November 19, 2014. The rebrand was an effort to increase sales, which dropped in the previous two years. The menu was expanded to introduce various items such as crust flavors and eleven new specialty pies. Work uniforms for employees were also refreshed.[10] In 2017, Pizza Hut was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 24 in the list of 200 Most Influential Brands in the World.[11][12]
Pizza Hut is split into several different restaurant formats: the original family-style dine-in locations; storefront delivery and carry-out locations; and hybrid locations that have carry-out, delivery, and dine-in options. Some full-size Pizza Hut locations have a lunch buffet, with "all-you-can-eat" pizza, salad, bread sticks, and a pasta bar. Pizza Hut has other business concepts independent of the store type; Pizza Hut "Bistro" locations are "Red Roofs" which have an expanded menu and slightly more upscale options.
An upscale concept was unveiled in 2004, called "Pizza Hut Italian Bistro". At 50 U.S. locations, the Bistro is similar to a traditional Pizza Hut, except the menu features new, Italian-themed dishes such as penne pasta, chicken pomodoro, and toasted sandwiches.[13] Instead of black, white, and red, Bistro locations feature a burgundy and tan motif
