Pizza Hut will launch Detroit-style pizza as its change continues

Pizza Hut is moving on to the Detroit-style pizza pan trend, as it looks set to continue to recover in 2021 after strong sales growth last year.

Starting Tuesday, the Yum Brands chain will sell four different types of Detroit-style pizza for a limited time, starting at $ 10.99.

Detroit-style pizza is characterized by its rectangular shape, thick crust, edge-to-edge cheese and tomato sauce that covers the cheese and other toppings. Pizza has grown in popularity over the past decade, as Michiganders opened pizzerias elsewhere in the U.S. Little Caesars, which is privately owned and based in Detroit, was the first national pizza chain to take the mass trend in 2013.

Buddy’s Pizza is credited with creating the vessel 75 years ago, using blue steel pans from local car factories. In 2018, CapitalSpring, a private equity firm specializing in restaurant and franchise brands, invested an undisclosed amount in Buddy’s to capitalize on the trend by expanding nationwide.

“Detroit-style pizza is the fastest growing pizza trend,” said David Graves, brand director of Pizza Hut USA. “It’s no longer an exclusive thing in the Midwest.”

He added that Pizza Hut customers expect the chain to take on their own food trends and demand a Detroit-style pizza.

“We’ve never seen our franchisees more excited about a launch,” Graves said.

The chain spent more than a year to perfect its own version and even created a new tomato sauce that will be used only on that type of pizza.

Detroit Double Pepperoni has 80 slices of pepperoni, of which more than half are pepperoni in cups. Pizza Double Cheesy has two types of cheese, while Meaty Deluxe comes with bacon, Italian sausages and pepperoni in cups. Pizza Supremo comes with green bell peppers, Italian sausages and red onions.

The launch comes as the pizza category approaches a year of growing demand, which stems from the coronavirus pandemic. Pizza Hut and its rivals Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s reported an increase in sales at the same store in the US in the second and third quarters of 2020. For Pizza Hut, in particular, the crisis has helped accelerate the transition to more sales. delivery and pick-up and fewer customers serving meals.

Yum’s shares have been roughly flat over the past year, giving it a market value of $ 31.8 billion. The company’s US locations returned relatively quickly due to the coronavirus pandemic, but its international restaurants have recovered more slowly.