Pizza Hut to close 250 locations nationwide amid sell-off concerns

Yum Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, said on Wednesday that it is looking to eliminate those Pizza Hut locations that have been underperforming. The parent company has also been conducting a formal review for the options for the pizza chain, as the restaurant has been a struggling brand for multiple years.

During an earning call on February 4, the Yum Brands Chief Financial Officer Ranjith Roy said the move was part of "Hut Forward," which is a strategy that includes “vibrant marketing, modernization of technology, and franchise agreements."

“While we don’t share specific details of franchise agreements, we are pleased to be working in partnership with our franchisees on increased efforts to deliver near-term sales while advancing long-term strategy,” Roy said in a statement to Restaurant Business.

Pizza Hut has long struggled to have consistent revenue, but the brand has recently been performing even worse. The chains unit volumes have been the lowest in the four large pizza chains, including Little Caesars, Papa Johns, and Dominos.

Last year, the brand’s sales declined by 7 percent, which also included a 5 percent decline in same store sales within the same year. “We are taking focused, short-term actions on Pizza Hut, focused on the execution of the strategic review,” Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said about the audit of the chain. He called it “the right answer for the brand as we move through the strategic review.”