The chain launches a new Detroit-style pizza, shaping the traditional round for a rectangular crust with cheese tossed to the edges popular in the city of Michigan. This is Pizza Hut’s second major product launch this month, as the pandemic-era pizza wars show little sign of slowing down.
Pizza Hut said it had tested more than 500 versions of the new menu item, with several of the tests in the Middle East, ahead of the nationwide launch Tuesday. The chain used its own special “vine-dripping tomato sauce” because it found it kept the thick crust light and airy.
The new offering consists of four options, including the “Detroit Double Pepperoni” which Pizza Hut describes as a “work of pizza art” because it contains 80 pepperoni slices. The other options are the “Double Cheesy”, “Meaty Deluxe” and the “Supremo”, which contains Italian sausage, red onions and green peppers. Prices start at $ 10.99.
The competition among big chains was fierce during the pandemic, which fueled an increase in the demand for pizza from Americans who spend more time at home and avoid food restaurants. Sales and revenue increased at Pizza Hut last year, Domino’s (DMPZF) and Papa John’s (PZZA) while consumers relentlessly shoved pizzas down their throats.
Peter Saleh, a restaurant analyst at research firm BTIG, expects rising sales to continue last year this year. “What we saw in 2020 was that many of these pizza deliveries had a big boost in their sales because there was nowhere else to go,” he told CNN Business. Several U.S. states have restricted eateries in the restaurant and have introduced capacity control due to the virus.
Saleh predicts that pizza sales will remain healthy by 2021, as the “eating environment continues to be challenged.”
