Pizza Hut hopes to be No.1 again with new look

11 new pizza offerings on the menu along with customized options for toppings and drizzles

What comes to our minds apart from cheese when we say or hear someone say ‘pizza’? Red roofs and logos. Well, yes that’s Pizza Hut –the most popular pizza chain the world over. Their restaurants are seen everywhere and in the recent days we have often seen where the red-shingled trapezoid tops other businesses that have replaced shuttered Pizza Huts: a funeral home, a police station, a couple of churches and an adult toy store, to name a few. A Pittsburgh-based blogger and former Pizza Hut photo archivist Mike Neilson, writes that “Whatever their current purpose, we can always be reminded of the mediocre pizza that was once served in these establishments.” Mike is known mostly for his catalogs on closed Pizza Huts which he writes at his blog usedtobeapizzahut.com.

Most of the pictures taken by Mike are often accompanied with eulogies such as the one attached with the now-shuttered Chicago Pizza Hut. It goes on to say “A life cut too short, this [Pizza Hut] once thrived in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago but slowly withered away, feeling out of place in a world overtaken by the dreaded D&Ds (delivery and DiGiorno). Cordoned off like a crime scene, from this overhead view you can still make out the distinct flooring of the seating area, the entrance, and even the spot in the middle of the seating area where the buffet sat.”

Though this situation doesn’t appear too positive for the Pizza Hut owners, it isn’t all about disappointment and lovers of the cheesy Pizza Hut pizzas would be glad to find out that it is highly probable that this chain’s identity is born anew following November 19th. The all new look is being accompanied by a new menu and a whole new look – all in hopes to reverse what David Novak, the CEO of Pizza Hut’s parent company Yum! Brands, called “continued soft performance.”

Pizza Hut, founded in 1958, remains to be the top-selling pizza chain in the US and many other countries, but over the recent years it has shown some gradual decline pertaining to the tough completion and also the increasingly popular “fast-casual” spots like Chipotle. But with these new strategies, the company seems to be holding high hopes and is working towards improving the image.

The change is not just coming in the menu but the chain is receiving a complete new look with a new logo, a new website and a new uniform too. The staff of Pizza Hut is now going to be swapping the traditional red polo and black pants for a more casual look with jeans and a T-shirt. 11 new pizza offerings are going to be included on the refreshed menu and from what we are hearing the pizza chain is also getting on to the customization bandwagon popularized by Chipotle.

This customization is bringing a choice of crust, five new toppings, six sauces and four “drizzles.” The company’s new motto is “The Flavor of Now” but we are afraid that the new Sriracha-doused, bacon-topped menu is a little behind the times. Foodie Web site Eater’s take on the new menu was summed up in their headline: “Pizza Hut Hopes Putting Sriracha On Everything Will Make it Cool.”

source: washingtonpost