Pizza Hut changes format, adds to menu

Pizza Hut, one of the flagships of Yum Brands Inc, the global restaurant chain, is looking at a complete overhaul of its outlet formats, apart from menu expansion, in India.

“Our format has always been the casual dining segment. We do not focus much on the business of delivering pizzas in boxes because 70% of our business in India is through dining. So, expanding our menu works better for our business. We already have about 30-35% share in the casual dining market,” Anup Jain, director, marketing, Pizza Hut, Indian subcontinent at Yum Restaurants International, said.

From being a pizza restaurant joint for around 15 years in the country, Pizza Hut will now operate in the affordable causal dining segment serving 30 new items in its menu such as pastas, soups, salads, starters, beverages and desserts in addition to pizzas.

The chain started off by doing a pilot of the new rollout at its Juhu, Mumbai outlet a year ago with new interiors, cutlery and staff uniform. “We noticed a 25% jump in sales during the test drive. We are expecting an overall same-store-sales (SSS) growth of 25% this year,” Jain said.

From Monday, all Pizza Hut restaurant outlets will roll out the new menu. Pizza Hut India is looking at marketing spends of Rs 3-4 crore on the change, with commercials starting in 10 days.  Meanwhile,

Yum Brands is looking to launch its first Taco Bell outlet in India next year. It also plans to have 500 KFC outlets by 2015. India is one of the future high growth potential markets for Yum Brands internationally.

Pizza Hut is estimating that after the new menu rollout, only about 50% of sales will come from pizzas while pasta, soups and salads, and beverages will  contribute 10%, 5% and 10% to sales, respectively.  The global restaurant company is expecting to earn about $100 million profit from India in 5 years.