Pizza Hut tries out six identities and interiors

Pizza Hut, claimed to be the UK’s leading pizza restaurant chain, is trialing six different identities at six separate outlets around the South East.

It is understood that the same number of new interior formats are also being tested.

The new interiors for the project have been developed by Scurr & Partners, says a Pizza Hut spokesman. But he was unable to confirm the name of the identity group working on the project as Design Week went to press.

Customers are to be consulted as part of the project, to gauge their opinions of the designs before Pizza Hut decides which identity and format to adopt. The consultation process is expected to last for some weeks.

A roll out to the chain’s 400 restaurants is then expected to follow. In April of this year Pizza Hut’s management pledged to invest more than £100m on a scheme to give the chain a new image.

Test sites for the programme include restaurants in Harrow and Ilford, where new facias are currently under trial. It is understood that the chain plans to complete the introduction of new interiors and signage to the entire chain by 2001.

Rival group Deep Pan Pizza announced in June a plan to rebrand its entire estate to a format created by Rugby consultancy Bomber Design, after a six month trial at two sites. Bomber Design quantity surveyor David Richards described the redesign as giving the chain a “refreshing uplift” (DW 4 June).