Pizza Hut to close up-to 300 restaurants as NPC files for bankruptcy

Casual dining chain Pizza Hut may close up-to 300 restaurants as its franchisee NPC International has filed for the bankruptcy.

The restaurants that are closing are mostly dine-in locations not well suited for takeout and delivery.

According to reports, Pizza sales have exploded during the pandemic. Domino's last month reported a 30% spike in quarterly profits and it also announced hiring more than 20,000 people to handle surging orders.

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Franchisee NPC International on Monday in documents filed in bankruptcy court said that it had come to an agreement with Pizza Hut to close hundreds of locations.

NPC International, Inc. is Pizza Hut’s largest franchisee in the U.S., and its portfolio of 1,227 locations represents 20% of the Pizza Hut system’s restaurant base in the U.S.

Each year, NPC’s 23,000 plus team members proudly serve over 68 million pizzas to Americans in 27 states. NPC has been a leading franchisee for almost six decades, and over that time has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in building and acquiring its restaurants.

In its filing, NPC said that closing stores not designed for pick-up or delivery will allow it to invest in smaller stores that can better handle online orders.

In May, Pizza Hut’s U.S. carryout and delivery sales reached an eight-year high, according to Yum Brands Inc.

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But Pizza Hut’s U.S. system wide sales grew just 1% in the April-June period; rival Domino’s Pizza, which has smaller, carryout-focused stores, posted a 20% jump in U.S. sales.

Yum Brands in a prepared statement said the stores being closed had underperformed others owned by NPC, and that shedding them would strengthen NPC's remaining portfolio.