Pizza Hut’s growth strategy reflects what pizza fans have known for decades: Delivery works.
Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed re-explained this strategy on the company’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday, as Pizza Hut’s struggling dine-in business continues to weigh it down. Dine-in sales lag behind off-premise sales line growth by 7 percentage points, according to the company.
…“Our delivery and carryout business is growing low to mid-single-digit over the last couple of years. The other half of our business, legacy dine-in, which has been declining by high single digits, really overcompensates for any growth that we see in the other half of the business.”
Yum Brands’ growing partnership with Grubhub in the U.S. is another key element of its growth strategy, Creed said. The chain ended the first quarter with more than 200 locations on the third-party marketplace. Orders originate on Grubhub and are delivered by Pizza Hut drivers.