Pizza Hut has unveiled a fresh new concept for its restaurants, and it may remind you of a Chipotle experience. On Tuesday, the chain revealed its redesigned restaurant layout, focusing on a central pizza-making station where customers can watch their orders come to life. This new format, launched at a remodeled location in Plano, Texas, is part of a broader strategy to address sluggish sales and stiff competition in the pizza industry.
A Modernized Dining Experience
The Plano location boasts a number of modern upgrades, including touchscreen kiosks where customers can easily place their orders. These tech innovations are complemented by heated cabinets for convenient pick-up. A key feature of this design is the addition of a drive-thru lane, where customers can grab food from a new “Hut ‘N Go” menu. This menu, with its digital boards and pre-made meals, aims to cut down on wait times and offer more convenience.
Pizza Hut is looking to regain its footing in a competitive landscape, where inflation has left customers increasingly value-conscious, and third-party delivery apps are providing competition. These apps, which offer everything from pizza to burgers, have been changing how people order food, making the pizza category less exclusive. According to Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief at Restaurant Business Magazine, Pizza Hut has a “weird history” because it once offered full-service dining but now faces an era where pizza delivery is no longer as unique.
Testing the Waters with New Design
Despite these challenges, Pizza Hut is hopeful its new approach will revitalize the brand. The Plano location is the first in the U.S. to feature this remodeled design, though similar concepts have been successful internationally. While the restaurant’s size and staffing remain the same, the changes are aimed at improving both the customer experience and operational efficiency.
Shannon Garcia, President of Global Franchise Markets and Global Operations, highlighted that consumers now expect not only speed and accuracy but also a unique dining experience. She believes that post-pandemic, customers are more digitally savvy, and Pizza Hut is meeting this demand with a forward-facing pizza-making station, similar to Chipotle’s setup. This setup, which has already driven success in international markets, is intended to make the process more engaging and increase customer satisfaction and sales.
With a challenging market and a 1% drop in same-store sales in its latest quarter, Pizza Hut hopes these changes will help them keep up with the competition and attract a new generation of pizza lovers.
