Pizza Hut looks to slice up its rivals

Pizza Hut UK is stepping up its restaurant development programme with four new-build restaurants this summer, as part of a £1.5m investment in interiors concepts designed to ‘see off’ competition from rival chains.

The UK business is working with five interior and architecture groups – Scurr & Partners, S&P Architects, Roger Wenn Partnership, Harrison Ince Partnership and RJD Design – to open a total of 35 new-build stores this year.

This summer’s launches include a Preston venue, designed by Scurr & Partners, which opens next month. The group is also designing interiors for Pizza Hut Leeds, which opens in July. S&P Architects is designing sites in Eastbourne and Truro, both due to open in August.

Fees for design work on each restaurant will vary between £25 000 and £50 000 depending on the site, says Pizza Hut head of design and construction John Graham. Each restaurant will incorporate different design elements across lighting, furniture, external signage, graphic images and flooring, he adds.

‘Each [consultancy] is experimenting with one or two stores. We don’t want to standardise our restaurants; we want to reinvent the interiors without alienating customers,’ Graham explains.

Success with restaurant interiors trials has seen Pizza Hut UK become ‘more radical and adventurous’ with its design and move away from the ‘cookie-cutter mentality’ of the US restaurants, says Graham.

Pizza Hut currently has more than 500 outlets in the UK including 350 dine-in restaurants.