Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, announced it would launch a “formal review of strategic options.”
WASHINGTON — Pizza Hut’s parent company, Yum! Brands announced it is considering “strategic options” for the chain, which could include a possible sale.
Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, announced on Tuesday that it would launch a “formal review of strategic options for the Pizza Hut brand.”
“The Pizza Hut team has been working hard to address business and category challenges; however, Pizza Hut’s performance indicates the need to take additional action to help the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside of Yum! Brands,” Yum! Brands CEO Chris Turner said in a statement. “To truly take advantage of the brand we’ve built and the opportunities ahead, we’ve made the decision to initiate a thorough review of strategic options.”
Turner said that Pizza Hut has many strengths, including “deep consumer love, a global footprint, strong growth in many markets, a talented team, and an increasingly powerful technology platform.”
The parent company owns roughly 20,000 Pizza Hut restaurants worldwide.
Yum! Brands has not set a deadline for completing the review. The company said it will not make any further comments on the review.
Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by two brothers who borrowed $600 from their mother to open the store. They chose the name because their sign only had room for eight letters.
The news of Pizza Hut’s uncertain future comes the day after another 1950s-era dine-in icon, Denny’s, announced it was being sold to an investor group and taken private. Like Pizza Hut, Denny’s has also struggled with customers’ shift to delivery and growing competition in casual dining options.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
