Story of Pizza Hut is No Less Tasty Than Pizza, Company Was Started Just At $ 600 Investment
How the story started
The story begins in the year 1958. Dan and Frank Carney, two college students, lived in Visita, Kansas, USA. One day his family friend John Bender told him that he should open a pizza shop. Investment is also required for business. Both brothers went to their mother. Mother gave them 600 dollars. The funny thing is that neither of the two brothers knew how to make pizza nor run a business.
The first Pizza Hut was opened at this place
The two brothers rented a building to open a shop at 503 South Bluff in Vishita. They bought second hand equipment to make pizza. The night the restaurant opened, the two brothers distributed pizza to the people in the community interest. Hardly anyone thought then that the small shop opened on 15 June 1958 will have 18 thousand 703 restaurants around the world by 31 December 2019 and it will become the world’s largest pizza chain in terms of location.
Pizza Hut’s people also have a special story
Everyone must have seen Pizza Hut’s logo outside the restaurant. Under a red hut, first the pizza and below it is written in English and then the yellow line is below it. In fact, when the Carney Brothers started with the first store, outside the 56-yard building there was space for only eight letters to write the name, so they named it – Pizza Hut, which has eight letters of the English alphabet so that it fit easily.
It is said that the fruits of hard work are available only lately. Pizza Hut restaurant gained prominence and growth so quickly that within a year, in 1959, Carney Brothers opened its first franchise in Topeka, Kansas. Pizza Hut was extremely popular among people. Money was coming. Now both brothers thought that they should take their brand to the next level. During this time the franchisee continued to expand with the help of friends and associates, which led Carney Brothers to expand the business further.
After this, both of them thought that publicity of business was also necessary, so they advertised it. Pizza Hut’s first ad appeared on TV in 1967 and was also shown at the Oklahoma State Fair. In just 10 years, Pizza Hut had 310 restaurants opened in many places in Canada and America. The red colored hut you see in Pizza Hut’s logo was brought into design in 1969.
From 1970 to 1980, Pizza Hut was touching the fame worldwide. Many items were added to its menu, its restaurants opened in other countries such as Britain, Japan and the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In these 10 years, Pizza Hut had crossed the figure of 4 thousand stores and 10 thousand teenagers were working in it.
Carney Brothers sold business to PepsiCo
In 1977, Carney Brothers sold their business to PepsiCo for $ 300 million by mutual agreement. The sale reached $ 43.6 crore and opened at Headquarters Office Vishita for $ 1 million. In the year 1980, many new competitors came to the company, who wanted to grab the number 1 crown in the business of pizza restaurants, which had a business of 15 billion dollars in the US alone.
McDonald’s was also in competition
In the United States in 1991, Pizza Hut got a tough fight with the food chain company McDonald’s. At that time MacDonald’s launched the new product MacPizza and also gave home delivery to the customers. But despite the economic downturn and tough competition, Pizza Hut remained profitable. The company’s sales at the pizza chain rose ten percent worldwide to $ 5.3 billion. Pizza Hut started serving online orders in 1994. It was the first pizza company to do so.
Profit of $ 30 million due to Trump
When Pizza Hut launched its first stuffed crust pizza, it was thought that the idea would be completely flopped. But in 1995, Donald Trump (the current US President) and his ex-wife Ivana appeared in an advertisement for Pizza Hut, after which Americans also agreed to eat stuffed crust pizza. The company earned an additional $ 3 million in profits from this advertisement.
First restaurant opened in police protection in India
At that time there was a period of political upheaval in India. HD Deve Gowda became Prime Minister on 1 June 1996 after Atal Bihari Vajpayee. There was anger in some organizations in India about foreign companies. Pizza Hut’s first restaurant in India opened on 18 June 1996 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Police forces were deployed outside the restaurant amid threats from some pro-vegetarian groups and the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangh (KRRS). When people were enjoying pizza inside, the policemen outside were engaged in settlement. Actually, the company had sought police protection due to threats from the KRRS attack. Today, Pizza Hut has 422 outlets in India. The company wants to open 200 more outlets by 2022.
Today it is an international brand of $ 8.5 billion
Starting from $ 600 in 1958, a small shop has become an international brand of $ 8.5 billion today. The company has delivered pizza from the International Space Station to Tanzania’s 5895-meter-high Mount Kilimanjaro. The 56-yard building in which Pizza Hut first started, has been moved from that building to the campus of Vishita State University. Now it is a museum, which has the history, fun facts and memories of Pizza Hut. All this happened with the hard work of two brothers and the idea that started in very little capital and became very big.
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