No matter where you live and where you come from, the chances that you’ve heard about Pizza Hut are pretty high. People from all over the world are familiar with this name, but don’t know a lot about its history. For example – what city and state did Pizza Hut start in? If you would like to know more about the original roots of Pizza Hut and how it came to be such an immense company with thousands of restaurants, keep reading.
Pizza Hut was originally founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1958. The first restaurant was opened by two brothers, who had a great love for making delicious pizzas for their citizens. The restaurant soon started spreading around the USA, and later other continents, and is now available in more than 100 countries.
The First Pizza Hut Was Opened in Wichita, Kansas
Pizza Hut is known for being one of the most popular pizzerias in the US, and many other countries as well. People from all over the world have heard about this interesting company, and some get really intrigued to learn more about its tradition. If you ever wondered where this large company was founded – you should know that the first Pizza Hut restaurant opened back in 1958, in Wichita, Kansas.
The Story Behind the First Pizza Hut Restaurant
The first Pizza Hut restaurant was opened in 1958, by two brothers from Wichita, Kansas. According to the real story, the two brothers decided to start a business on their own. They ended up borrowing $600 from their mother and managed to open their own pizza place.
The Carney brothers wanted to offer their fellow citizens the finest pizza, so they cooperated with local farmers to produce the best quality ingredients. The story about the Carney brothers and their original name and signature roof is a tradition that Pizza Hut cherishes to this day, and they proudly represent it.
How Did Pizza Hut Become One of the Biggest Pizza Restaurants
The Carney brothers had a great vision that they managed to make true, mostly by keeping their standards high. Pizza Hut’s main policy was to look after the customers, make the finest pizza, get the best ingredients, and never let the customers down.
The brothers began franchising in 1959 with the idea of creating an authentic and iconic pizza place. They soon started spreading their restaurants and were even acquired by PepsiCo. This is exactly why Pizza Hut became the No.1 pizza restaurant chain in the world in both sales and number of restaurants.
The Restaurants Were Growing and Spreading at a Fast Pace
It may seem unbelievable how fast this small company started growing and spreading all over the globe. To understand just how fast things were shifting in this company, and how big of progress the brothers were making with their company, you can take a look at the chronological timetable of events that took place.
| 1965 | The first commercial was released. |
| 1968 | Opening of Pizza Hut in Canada. |
| 1969 | The restaurants opened in Mexico and plans for opening in Germany and Australia began. |
| 1971 | Award for the best pizza chain restaurant. |
| 1972 | The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. |
| 1976 | The 100th international Pizza Hut opened in Australia. The entire franchise reached 2000 restaurants. |
| 1979 | Restaurants opened in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. |
| 1983 | The company celebrates its 25th anniversary by employing 10,000 teenagers. |
| 1984 | The national reading incentive program was launched and 200,000 students enrolled. |
| 1990 | Pizza Huts sales reach 4 billion dollars. |
Today, Pizza Hut Is Still the Biggest Pizza Chain in the World
Following the rebranding in 2014, Pizza Hut increased its sales and managed to continue spreading its restaurants globally. Today, the chain’s headquarter is in Plano, Texas, and the franchise operates 17,639 restaurants all over the world.
It is the world’s largest pizza chain and has about 350,000 employees. The company keeps evolving through the years – it’s still very innovative and doesn’t fail to surprise its customers. In the past few years, the company has managed to do some incredible things, such as
- Setting a world record by making a pizza delivery to Mountain Kilimanjaro, to celebrate the opening in the 100th country in 2016,
- In 2017, the company donated more than 100 million pounds of food to the ones in need,
- In 2018 it became the Official Pizza Sponsors of the NFL,
- In 2020, it became the first national pizza company to bring plant-based pizza coast-to-coast.
The Main Policy Is Still Keeping the Customers Happy
There are a lot of questions about how this small local business came to be the biggest pizza chain restaurant in the world. Pizza Hut headquarters believe it’s because they do their best to provide customer-friendly service and environment. The many options of ordering, ordering online, no-contact payments, fast delivery, constant new offers, good prices, and discounts are what keep the crowds happy.
They still care very much about their ingredients and the quality of their food, which is probably what makes all of their famous pizzas, cheese pizzas, and pan pizzas, so beloved and popular. The restaurants work hard even on the weekends and different holidays, and they are always trying to make their customers happy. Some of this has to do with them being at the top of the pizza chain industry.
Enjoy Your Pizza Hut Pizza Knowing Where It All Started
History can be super fun, especially when it’s about pizzas. Next time you decide to make an order at Pizza Hut, you will feel super proud for knowing some of these interesting facts about the company and how it grew its business. It will probably be super fun to think about their marketing strategies and how important branding is when it comes to selling products. Hopefully, you found this short article about the history of Pizza Hut informative and fun. Maybe you get some inspiration from it and decide to try to open up a business of your own one day.