PIZZA HUT IN THE UK SOLD TO INVESTMENT GROUP

Pizza Hut’s 330 restaurants in the UK have been sold by the US firm Yum! Brands to the investment group Rutland Partners. Rutland will run the restaurants under franchise from Yum! and has pledged to put £20m into the business. Along with £40m to be generated by cashflow, the money will be used to refurbish the outlets as brightly coloured American diner-style restaurants.

Pizza Hut’s management, led by Jens Hofma, is staying on. The team was brought in two years ago to mastermind a turnaround. Out of 10 new store formats tested, the US-style ones trialled at the Bullring in Birmingham and in Solihull and Thurrock shopping centres have been picked and will be rolled out across Britain. The menus are also being updated to include more pasta dishes and salads. Last year Pizza Hut served up 9,600 tonnes of salad, off ering a free salad with every main meal.

Yum!, which also owns KFC, will receive royalties from Rutland and keeps the Pizza Hut delivery business in the UK. The two parties will collaborate closely to develop the Pizza Hut brand in Britain. Pizza Hut was once partly owned by Whitbread, which sold its 50% interest in the UK group to Yum! for £112m in 2006.

Nick Morrill, managing partner of Rutland, said: “The business has had its fair share of challenges over the past few years but the management team has put a clear turnaround plan in place that has already led to much improved performance over the past 12 months.”

By Julia Kollewe in "The Guardian",  London, 2012, November, 10. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.