Pizza Hut this week is introducing a new pouch that’s designed to deliver pies 15 degrees hotter than in the past, the company says.
The Plano, Texas-based division of Yum! Brands Inc. is rolling out the triple-insulated pouch and newly designed box this among other ongoing delivery changes, including alerts for pizza routing and additional drivers, in its 6,300 domestic restaurants.
“The pizza pouch is part of our completely re-engineered ‘oven-hot delivery system,’” said Zipporah Allen, Pizza Hut vice president of brand marketing and consumer insight, told NRN on Monday. The pouch, which accommodates three boxed pizzas, was designed to accommodate a 20 to 35-minute delivery period.
Allen said the pouch has three layers: The inside lining uses 3M Thinsulate, like what is used in cold-weather jackets; the middle layer is made from a heat-reflecting aluminum material similar to what astronaut’s use in space blankets; and an outside layer is padded with polyester fiber akin to home insulation.
Pizza Hut also re-crafted the box to accommodate more air in its thicker corrugated walls and a new sheet on which the pie is placed, Allen said.
“In particular, the crisp sheet will go into every Pizza Hut box,” she said. “The role of the crisp sheet is to keep the crust crisp and craveable as the pizza is being transported from the oven the consumer.”
The crisp sheet is cardboard that is ridged, Allen said, “so you get the insulation from the air between the ridges.” The ridges, or fluting, provide a better delivered product and also provide a surface on which to keep the pie hotter after it is removed from the box in the home.
The new box and pouch are layered on Pizza Hut’s new algorithm for more accurate on expected delivery time, text notifications and additional drivers to dispatch the pies faster than in the past.
The new pouch and box are part of two-year effort that included the Pizza Hut’s culinary and engineering teams, Allen said.
“The challenge was to crack the code on how we could develop a product that carried heat better in the delivery process,” she said. “There’s a lot of science behind the thermodynamics on what happens to the pizza from the oven to the consumer’s house.”
To promote the new delivery system through the end of October, Pizza Hut will give customers who place online orders a chance to have a Pizza Parka — made from the same materials as the pouch — delivered along with their pizza. Twitter users can also tweet the pizza slice and flame emoji to @PizzaHut to enter.
“What better way to showcase how hot our new delivery system keeps our pizzas than outfitting some of our biggest fans with a winter parka made from the same materials,” Allen said in a statement. “The Pizza Parka is going to keep the lucky recipients hot in the same cold-weather elements that our pizzas often endure on the delivery trip from our restaurants to their front doors.”
The new pouch is being introduced only in the domestic restaurants now, Allen said. Pizza Hut has 16,400 units in more than 100 countries.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
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