DALLAS Pizza Hut said it would start delivering family-sized servings of pasta entrees systemwide on April 6.
Two delivery pasta choices will be offered: creamy chicken alfredo and meat marinara. Each is priced at $11.95, which is the same price of a large pizza with one topping. Delivered in pans, each order feeds six people and comes with five breadsticks, according to Pizza Hut, one of Yum! Brands Inc.’s quick-service concepts.
Franchisor Pizza Hut Inc. said the new delivery options would not require more equipment for stores or delivery people. The pasta will be supplied to locations frozen and baked in the units’ pizza ovens. The delivery pouches used for pizzas will also be used for the trays of pasta, and the aluminum pans can be reheated.
Pizza Hut consists of 6,200 restaurants in the United States, with 4,000 more operating in 100 other nations.
Brian Niccol, Pizza Hut’s chief marketing officer, told USA Today that pasta could be 15 percent of Pizza Hut’s business within a year, based on tests in Kansas City, Mo., and Tampa, Fla.
Smaller quick-service chains, such as the 110-unit Mr. Goodcents Subs & Pastas of De Soto, Kan., and independent quick-service operators have offered pasta delivery for years.
J. Patrick Doyle, president of Domino’s USA, told USA Today it had no plans for pasta delivery in the United States, even though Domino’s units in South Korea and Malaysia do offer that service.
William Van Epps, president of U.S. operations for Papa John’s International Inc., said that company had no plans for pasta either.
Pizza Hut’s announcement that it would begin delivering pasta comes on the heels of changes at another Yum brand, KFC Corp., which announced Monday that it would roll a new nonfried chicken product systemwide by next year. The chicken chain also said it would allow franchisees to rebrand their stores as “Kentucky Fried & Grilled Chicken.”