CiCi’s Pizza reported the highest ESPU for the Latest Year in the Pizza segment.

Sales and unit growth in 2013 for the industry’s top seven Pizza players was, like their core product, somewhat flat. The segment’s unit growth averaged just 1.3 percent — up 0.1 percent compared with the Preceding Year — while average systemwide sales inched up a modest 2.3 percent — down from 3.9 percent in the Preceding Year.

While holding its own in an ever-competitive market, the septuplet isn’t standing still. The segment’s leaders continue to innovate with industry-leading digital ordering technology, store redesigns and value-positioned offers to drive topline sales.

Posting $5.7 billion in U.S. systemwide sales across its 7,846 U.S. units, Pizza Hut remains the industry leader on both counts by a wide margin. But Pizza Hut’s estimated sales per unit, or ESPU, growth ranking was the lowest of all its peers, slipping 1.6 percent to move the chain from fourth in the group in the Preceding Year to seventh place in the Latest Year.

Reporting the highest ESPU for the Latest Year was the buffet-centered CiCi’s Pizza, with $886,400, followed by Little Caesars Pizza at $822,200. Yet of that pair, only Little Caesars also enjoyed sales and unit count increases.

Data

• Top 100 Rankings and Results

CiCi’s store count slipped 8.3 percent to 476 in the Latest Year, down from 519 in the Preceding Year, and its Latest-Year sales declined, but at a slower rate, dropping 6.8 percent in the most recent period, compared with a dip of 8.3-percent a year earlier.

By comparison, Little Caesars continued its multiyear unit growth streak with a 6.3-
percent increase in unit counts in both the Latest and Preceding years. The chain added 231 stores in the Latest Year, and its systemwide sales reached $3.1 billion, allowing it to expand both its unit count and sales leads over competitor  Papa John’s Pizza.

Little Caesars did not discuss what’s driving either increase, but expanded regional advertising of its successful $5 Hot-N-Ready pizza program and its 2013 Pan Pizza launch are likely contributors. This past February, the chain launched a $5 Hot-N-Ready lunch combo that mirrors a similar lunchtime effort tested but never expanded in its hometown of Detroit 15 years ago.

Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza, which recently held an initial public offering of stock, posted solid results in the Latest Year, increasing sales by 6.2 percent to $779.6 million and store counts by 5 percent, with 67 net units. The Vancouver, Wash.-based chain is optimistic its pan pizza, which it tested in 2013, will drive incremental sales as a nationwide menu item this year.

Domino’s Pizza led the group of seven in ESPU gains, at 5.3 percent in the Latest Year. The chain’s systemwide sales surged 6.2 percent to $3.8 billion, following an increase of 3.3 percent in the Preceding Year.

Tim McIntyre, vice president of communications at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino’s, said advances in its digital ordering platform have grown that channel’s transaction share to about 40 percent.

Mark Kalinowski, managing director and restaurant analyst at Janney Capital Markets, called digital ordering a huge strategic advantage enjoyed by large chains over smaller operations.

“Smarter companies will continue building their databases to build sales through what customers are telling them with their orders,” Kalinowski said. “It’s clearly what the industry is gravitating toward, and that will continue over next several years.”

Despite a number of popular fast-casual pizza startups entering the fray, Kalinowski doubts large chains are concerned about those burgeoning competitors just yet.

“That element is relatively tiny compared to the share owned by big chains,” he said. “[But] it pays to be forward looking in this business.”

Doubtless, the big chains are watching, Kalinowski added, pointing to the growing spate of  gourmet pizza line extensions.

“Down the road, could this become a competitive threat? Sure, it could,” he said. “But it’s not fair to compare apples and oranges here. It’s just something to watch.”

By the numbers

(Continued from page 1)