Pizza Hut has been everyone’s favourite!

Be it the early 60’s or the 21st century.

But it has changed a lot since it was started.

Back then, the menu was limited to a few items but now it has many varieties.

Even though it has evolved, the taste and the aroma of the pizza is still the same.

Have you ever been in a situation where you don't feel hungry at first but after witnessing it’s aroma, you feel the desire to eat it?

I have and surely you would have also experienced that a lot many times!

Today also if someone passes by the Pizza Hut store, they think once and eventually go inside to have it. It’s just because the pizza there is so tempting and has the greatest feeling of satisfaction.

Pizza Hut has been successful in maintaining the taste and that’s because the farmers who grew the ingredients also cared about the quality.

Since then, the farmers have grown them exactly in the same manner and the ingredients they use are still their highest priority.

Every business has a history about how it was started.

Let’s take a look at it.

Two brothers , Dan and Frank Carney, who lived in Wichita, wanted to start a pizza place, for which they borrowed $600 from their mother.

Since their signboard had space for only 8 letters , they named it “PIZZA HUT ''.

This is how PIZZA HUT came into existence on 15th june, 1958.

It’s first store was opened in Wichita, Kansas and eventually they opened six stores in just one year.

And not just that they also began franchising their brand the next year.

As the franchise units grew to 145, they established a home office in 1966 to coordinate their business.

Pizza hut witnessed a turning point in the early 1970’sit.

Pizza hut was growing at an unexpected pace, but after they lost control of the operations in 1972, they realised that they had to learn how to plan and make a long term business strategy.

And you know what, they planned a corporate strategy which was just enough to convince Pepsi Co. that the pizza chain was worth purchasing. And it worked!

That same year, Pizza Hut units were opened in Munich and Sydney, followed by 500 more restaurants in Nashville.

After working with Pepsi Co, they gained a listing on the New York Stock Exchange as well as achieved a one million dollar sales week in the U.S. market.

According to their marketing and expansion strategies, they purchased 3 restaurant divisions: Taco Kid, the Flaming Steer and Next Door and added a second distribution center in Peoria, illinois.

Pizza Hut expanded further in Japan and Great Britain in 1973, followed by 100 more restaurants outside the United States and 2000 more units within the next 3 years.

Advertising played a major role in the growth of pizza hut. Campaigns were run on both local and national level in the US market. Due to the profits they received, they started spending more on advertising.

Merger with pepsi co. in 1977.

Pepsi co decided to merge with Pizza Hut because they saw the potential in it. After the merger, they became a division of a global soft drink and food conglomerate. This brought profits to the company. Sales reached $436 million and a new $10 million headquarter’s office was opened in Wichita.

To compete with the new competitors, they introduced new additions to the menu with the help of marketing resources of PepsiCo. This new strategy really worked.

They achieved their aim of making pizza the ideal lunchtime meal in 1988 by introducing more additions to the menu.

After facing all the problems and losses, Pizza Hut still managed to grow tremendously and expand their franchise units in upcoming years.

This was the kind of spirit they had for their business.

Strong growth in the late 1980’s and in the early 1990.

In 1984, Steven Reinemund was appointed as the president and the chief executive officer of Pizza Hut. Under his supervision, Pizza Hut witnessed tremendous growth. 2 years later, they opened their 5000th franchise unit in Dallas and began its successful home delivery service.

The delivery and carryout business had grown to account for approximately 25 percent of the company’s total sales by the early 1990’s. Later, it’s first restaurant was opened in Moscow.

Pizza hut became so popular in Moscow that it quickly established itself as Pizza Hut’s highest volume unit in the world followed by France, Hong Kong, Finland, and Britain.

Despite their efforts and economic recession of the early 1990’s, it continued to profit which eventually led the sales of the pizza chain to rise up to ten percent worldwide to $5.3 billion in 1991.

The growth after the online services started was unexpected. It provided $1.2 billion in sales alone, and overall Pizza Hut sales were more than $21 billion that year on the restaurant and fast food side.

Bottom line

As Pizza Hut faced many ups and downs and challenges at the early stages of development, similarly other services also face problems, but still manages to retain their market value and eventually grow at an unexpected pace.