Pizza Hut is embracing a new era of dining with a restaurant revamp that brings the pizza-making process into the spotlight. The company has introduced a fresh design concept, placing a pizza preparation area at the heart of the eatery, offering patrons a front-row view of their pizzas being crafted. This innovative approach is part of a broader transformation at a revamped Pizza Hut location in Plano, Texas, as the brand navigates the challenges of lagging sales and mounting competition.

The revamped Texas restaurant boasts a contemporary interior, equipped with touchscreen kiosks for order placement and heated cabinets for convenient pick-up. The exterior has been updated with a drive-thru lane designed to accommodate a new "Hut 'N Go" menu. This menu features digital menu boards and focuses on serving the brand's most popular items, aiming to streamline the waiting time for customers.

The pizza industry is grappling with the effects of inflation, as customers seek out better value for their money. Additionally, there is fierce competition from third-party delivery services, which have diversified the takeout options available to consumers, reducing the dominance of pizza delivery. According to Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief at Restaurant Business Magazine, Pizza Hut has had a unique trajectory, transitioning from a full-service restaurant to a fast-food chain in response to Domino’s success and the subsequent standardization of the pizza market. This shift led to a lack of brand loyalty among consumers, as pizza consumption moved from a restaurant experience to a home-based one.

"The model that Pizza Hut had used successfully for decades was becoming outdated," Maze explained. The newly designed location maintains the same size and employee count as its predecessor, but Pizza Hut is testing this concept in Texas before considering a wider rollout across the United States. Internationally, there are already approximately 2,000 restaurants adopting this new design.

This Texas location is the first in the U.S. to implement this format, with additional features such as the touchscreen kiosks and the pizza-making station that faces the customers. "We understand that consumers are looking for speed, precision, and an outstanding product, but they also crave an experience," said Shannon Garcia, Pizza Hut’s president of global franchise markets and global operations. "In a post-pandemic world that has become increasingly digital, the timing is right for this change."

The experience-centric approach includes highlighting the employees with a pizza-making station similar to Chipotle's, which has proven to be "extremely successful" in international locations and has contributed to a rise in sales, according to Garcia. "This demonstrates the importance of experience," she added. "It's not just about convenience and reducing friction, but this front-facing experience provides a different level of consumer engagement, which also leads to an increase in business and transactions."

Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of Yum Brands (YUM), could benefit from this strategy, as it recently reported a 1% decrease in same-store sales in the last quarter. The "Hut 'N Go" meals have been clarified to include the contents of the new menu offerings.