As many as 300 Pizza Hut restaurants will be permanently closing after the largest franchisee for Yum! Brands, the parent company for the fast food chain, filed for bankruptcy.
NPC International Inc., which owns 1,227 Pizza Hut locations and nearly 400 Wendy’s locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 1, Louisville Business First reported.
According to the report, Yum! Brands and NPC International Inc. have agreed to close 300 underperforming restaurants.
“We have continued to work with NPC and its lenders to optimize NPC’s Pizza Hut restaurant footprint and strengthen the portfolio for the future, and today’s joint agreement to close up to 300 NPC Pizza Hut restaurants is an important step toward a healthier business,” Pizza Hut said in a statement to Fox Business.
Pizza Hut also wrote that it would be reallocating its employees from the closed stores to “thriving locations across the business where possible.”
“Consistent with Pizza Hut’s previously announced transition to a more modern delivery, curbside and carryout-focused asset base, a substantial majority of the NPC Pizza Hut locations to be closed are dine-in locations,” the statement read.
The specific locations closing have not yet been made public.
According to a second-quarter earnings report released by Yum! Brands, Pizza Hut off-premise channel generated “21% same-store sales growth when excluding closed Express units, or 16% same-store sales growth when including closed Express units.”
Worldwide system sales, excluding foreign currency translation, declined 10% for Pizza Hut.
