🔗 Share this article

Once, Pizza Hut was the favorite for parents and children to enjoy its all-you-can-eat buffet, endless salad selection, and self-serve ice-cream.

However not as many patrons are choosing the brand these days, and it is closing 50% of its British restaurants after being bought out of administration for the second instance this year.

I remember going Pizza Hut when I was a child,” says a young adult. “It was like a family thing, you'd go on a Sunday – spend the whole day there.” But now, as a young adult, she comments “it's fallen out of favor.”

In the view of a diner in her twenties, certain features Pizza Hut has been famous for since it launched in the UK in the mid-20th century are now outdated.

“The way they do their buffet and their salad bar, it seems as if they are cutting corners and have reduced quality... They offer so much food and you're like ‘How can they?’”

As food prices have increased significantly, Pizza Hut's buffet-style service has become very expensive to maintain. Similarly, its outlets, which are being cut from a large number to just over 60.

The chain, like many others, has also faced its costs go up. Earlier this year, staffing costs rose due to increases in the legal wage floor and an increase in employer social security payments.

A couple in their thirties and twenties say they frequently dined at Pizza Hut for a date “occasionally”, but now they order in a rival chain and think Pizza Hut is “very overpriced”.

Depending on your choices, Pizza Hut and Domino's rates are comparable, notes a culinary author.

While Pizza Hut has off-premise options through third-party apps, it is losing out to big rivals which focus exclusively to the delivery sector.

“Domino's has managed to dominate the delivery market thanks to strong promotions and ongoing discounts that make shoppers feel like they're getting a bargain, when in reality the base costs are relatively expensive,” explains the expert.

Yet for the couple it is acceptable to get their special meal sent directly.

“We absolutely dine at home now rather than we eat out,” says Joanne, echoing latest data that show a decrease in people going to casual and fast-food restaurants.

In the warmer season, quick-service eateries saw a 6% drop in diners compared to the previous year.

There is also one more competitor to ordered-in pies: the supermarket pizza.

Will Hawkley, senior partner at an advisory group, points out that not only have supermarkets been offering good-standard prepared pies for quite a while – some are even promoting pizza-making appliances.

“Shifts in habits are also contributing in the success of quick-service brands,” states the analyst.

The rising popularity of high protein diets has boosted sales at chicken shops, while hitting sales of dough-based meals, he notes.

Since people go out to eat more rarely, they may prefer a more upscale outing, and Pizza Hut's classic look with booth seating and red and white checked plastic table cloths can feel more old-fashioned than luxurious.

The rise of artisanal pizza places” over the last 10 to 15 years, for example popular brands, has “fundamentally changed the general opinion of what quality pizza is,” notes the culinary analyst.

“A crisp, airy, digestible pizza with a carefully curated additions, not the massively greasy, heavy and overloaded pizzas of the past. That, arguably, is what's caused Pizza Hut's struggles,” she says.

“What person would spend £17.99 on a tiny, mediocre, unsatisfying pizza from a chain when you can get a beautiful, masterfully-made classic pizza for under a tenner at one of the many real Italian restaurants around the country?

“It's an easy choice.”

An independent operator, who operates a small business based in a regional area explains: “It's not that stopped liking pizza – they just want better pizza for their money.”

The owner says his adaptable business can offer gourmet pizza at accessible prices, and that Pizza Hut struggled because it could not keep up with evolving tastes.

At a small pizza brand in a city in southwest England, the founder says the industry is expanding but Pizza Hut has failed to offer anything innovative.

“There are now by-the-slice options, artisanal styles, new haven, artisan base, Neapolitan, deep-dish – it's a heavenly minefield for a pizza enthusiast to discover.”

The owner says Pizza Hut “needs to reinvent itself” as younger people don't have any emotional connection or allegiance to the chain.

In recent years, Pizza Hut's customer base has been fragmented and distributed to its more modern, agile rivals. To maintain its costly operations, it would have to increase costs – which commentators say is difficult at a time when personal spending are decreasing.

The managing director of Pizza Hut's overseas branches said the rescue aimed “to safeguard our dining experience and retain staff where possible”.

It was explained its first focus was to keep running at the surviving locations and off-premise points and to help employees through the transition.

But with significant funds going into running its restaurants, it may be unable to spend heavily in its takeaway operation because the market is “complicated and using existing delivery apps comes at a cost”, commentators say.

Still, experts suggest, reducing expenses by leaving oversaturated towns and city centres could be a good way to adapt.