The story
Founded by Dan and Frank Carney on Jun 15, 2002, in Wichita.1
Pizza Hut was launched on May 31, 1958, by two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, both Wichita State students, as a single location in Wichita, Kansas. They were given a $600 loan from their mother to start the business. The brothers used the name Pizza Hut because the sign could only hold eight letters. Six months later they opened a second outlet, and within a year they were operating six locations. The brothers began franchising in 1959 with a location in Topeka, Kansas. By 1963, there were 24 locations.
One early employee was future Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Bill Parcells, who had worked for the company while a college student and football player at Wichita State University. Parcells was considering a franchise for a career (as well as law school), but instead chose to enter coaching, eventually becoming a head coach in the National Football League.
By 1966, the company had 140 locations and had established its headquarters in Wichita. The first Pizza Hut restaurant east of the Mississippi River was opened in Athens, Ohio, in 1966 by Lawrence Berberick and Gary Meyers. The iconic Pizza Hut building style with the distinctive red roof was introduced in 1969, and was later incorporated into the corporate logo. By the end of the decade, there were over 300 locations. The Carneys took the company public in 1969.
By 1971, Pizza Hut had more locations and higher sales than any of its competitors. In the early 1970s, Pizza Hut opened several other chains to diversify its menu. These included the fast-food Mexican eatery Taco Kid; hamburger restaurant Next Door; steakhouse Flaming Steer; and barbecue restaurant Sutphen's. All four ventures were unsuccessful and closed by the end of the decade. PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in November 1977. The company had over 4,000 locations by this point.
In August 1994, Pizza Hut and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) announced PizzaNet, a pilot program in the Santa Cruz area that allowed consumers to use their own computer to order pizza delivery from a local Pizza Hut restaurant, with connection being made over the Internet to a central Pizza Hut server in Wichita, Kansas. The PizzaNet application software was developed by SCO's Professional Services group. PizzaNet was based on the first commercially licensed and bundled Internet operating system, SCO Global Access.
On May 30, 1997, PepsiCo spun off Pizza Hut, along with Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, into a new company named Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. The company assumed the name of Yum! Brands on May 22, 2002.
On March 31, 2011, Priszm, the largest franchisee for Pizza Hut restaurants in Canada at the time, went into bankruptcy protection in Ontario and British Columbia.
In 2015, the oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut, which was the restaurant located in the Aggieville District of Manhattan, Kansas, closed after having opened as the 8th location in 1960.
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The company announced a rebrand that began on November 19, 2014, in an effort to increase sales, which had dropped in the previous two years. The menu was expanded to introduce various items such as crust flavors and 11 new specialty pizzas, and the company's employee uniforms were redesigned. In 2017, Pizza Hut was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 24 in the list of 200 Most Influential Brands in the World.
By 2018, the chain was no longer the biggest in the United States, having been surpassed by Domino's. On June 25, 2019, Pizza Hut announced it was bringing back the logo and the red roof design that was used from 1976 until 1999.
On August 7, 2019, Pizza Hut announced its intention to close about 500 of its 7,496 dine-in restaurants in the US, by the middle of 2021.
On August 18, 2020, Pizza Hut announced it would be closing up to 300 restaurants after the bankruptcy of NPC International, one of its largest franchisees. In March 2021, Flynn Restaurant Group acquired NPC's 937 Pizza Hut locations.
In 2025, Yum Brands closed 130 Pizza Hut locations. Citing the chain's continuing low sales, Yum Brands announced a strategic review of the chain's operations. In February 2026, it was announced that another 250 stores would close in the first half of 2026. In April 2026, it was reported that Yum was looking to sell the chain to private equity; that June, it was reported that the mainland China business was to be sold for $1.2 billion to Yum China Holdings, Inc., while the rest of the business was to be sold to LongRange Capital for $1.5 billion. The acquisition in China was completed on August 7, 2026, while the acquisition in the rest of the world was completed on September 1, 2026.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pizza Hut, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4