THE FAME CHAPTER BEHIND THE WORLD’S LEADING PIZZA CHAIN – PIZZA HUT

An American fast-food chain with more than 18,000 outlets globally, Pizza Hut is not just a pizza company but a token of emotion in the hearts of people who crave pizza now and then. This wonderful creation came up from the duo Frank and Dan Carney who co-founded Pizza Hut in 1958. Since its production, the company rocked the pizza market with its outstanding deliverables in delectable pizzas, beverages and garlic bread. In 2021, the company recorded revenue of $3.5 billion.

Dating back to its origin

The multinational restaurant chain is headquartered in Texas, USA. Pizza Hut today is a famous brand recognized for its beautiful and mouth-watering taste, accessibility, affordability and wide range of variety. Over 100 countries have this brand today. The fast food chain industry changed its outlook from UAE to Africa and several eminent personalities like Bhuvan Bam, Pamela Anderson, Mikhail Gorbachev, etc are linked to this brand today. Customer satisfaction and multiple dining experience options are two of this brand’s specialities. It hosts family-style dining, a lunch buffet and extraordinary dining facilities.
Dan and Frank, two siblings attended Wichita State University in Kansas. They had a life filled with hardships due to the sudden and earlier demise of their father at a very young age. While in college, they were contacted by a local real estate agent to open a pizza place in an unrented building whose vacant space was earlier used as a beer joint. The agent convinced them to open a pizza hub and without almost any knowledge about how to do business, they ventured upon their journey towards the global brand.

The journey to Pizza Hut

Upon deciding to test their luck on the pizza business, the two brothers met a pizza-making man, John Bender in 1958 who previously worked in a pizzeria in Indiana and rented a small-box-like building in South Bluff, Wichita and put up a signboard outside it with a small and simple name ‘Pizza Hut’. Not many people knew about Italian food at that time, so booming this industry wasn’t that easy. After a long duration of hard work, failures and many more, finally, the fruits of labour shined and their hard work paid off once the doors of Pizza Hut were opened to the public. Soon the small hut-like space became so popular that it was crowded and occupied with people all the time, people craving the world’s most relishing delicacy that these brothers have unknowingly manufactured. It became a hub point popular amongst teenagers and college students.

The success story

Both brothers started giving away free pizzas to increase customer engagement and their brand popularity. More and more faces came to the place and the name speeded soon like fire. The path to success is by letting people taste your sample so that they can further carry the message to others. The taste of handmade pizzas started attracting people from all age groups, families on weekends and youth on weekdays making the place an engaged spot. The Carney brothers soon were forced to open a second outlet in December 1958. In just a few months, success was in their hands and troops of people around the town started gossiping about this venture. Pizza Hut began franchising soon after its 1 year of establishment owing to huge consumer demand. During the decade of 1960, the brand grew stronger and wider and by 1966, there were about 145 outlets across the USA. In the next few years, it opened further outlets in Canada, Australia and Germany. The international expansion began in 1972 onwards when outlets were further opened in Japan, Great Britain, etc. in the 20th century and onwards Pizza Hut achieved several milestones and became a global pizza brand in the hearts of millions.

Story today

Today, the brand sells over million pizzas per day with over 6000 stores in the US and 5139 branches across 94 countries across the world. Undoubtedly, Pizza Hut is the leading pizza brand to today’s date with an estimated net worth as per Forbes, of $8.5 billion in 2017. It was recognized as the Pizza Restaurant Chain of the Year in 2018 by PAPA Industry. The first Loyalty and Engagement Medals presented two gold awards and one silver award to this brand as per biographygist.com.