Pizza Hut shuts 632 international locations in Q3 2020

In the most recent financial quarter, international pizza brand Pizza Hut indicated a continued shift toward off-premise sales by shutting 632 of its global restaurants, as reported by QSR. This figure is comprised of 422 U.S. locations, and 210 international sites.

This latest figure brings the brand’s total closures for 2020 to 1,205, offset by 345 openings. In total, Pizza Hut still operates 17,842 locations across its international portfolio.

Chief financial officer Chris Turner listed several factors for the recent closures in the brand’s recent Q3 earnings call, including the bankruptcy of its largest U.S. franchisee, NPC International, the overlap following the Telepizza alliance, and the inarguable impact of COVID-19 which has led to a development of off-premise units.

“We do think the brand is well-positioned for the future based on these accelerating trends,” said CEO David Gibbs. “Franchisees are obviously benefitting from that in terms of their financial condition and the opportunity to execute the strategy we’ve talked about now for a couple of years, about wanting to get out of certain dine-in assets that aren’t brand-building assets, that are essentially holding us back. Certainly, it’s a brand with a bright future in our portfolio, but still has a lot of work to do to pivot the asset base to the asset base that makes sense for today’s consumer.”

Globally, Pizza Hut saw same-store sales fall by three per cent due to rising U.S. stores offset by a drag internationally. Domestic restaurants increased by six per cent in Q3, while international sites more dependent on dine-in sales fell by nine per cent. In this most recent quarter, revenue for Pizza Hut increased to $243m, which is a one per cent increase year-over-year.

For Yum!, the parent company of Pizza Hut as well as other brands like Taco Bell and KFC, same-store sales dropped two per cent, but total revenue was up eight per cent to $1.4bn. More than 35,000 restaurants across Yum!’s portfolio now offer delivery, which is an 11 per cent increase year-over-year.