Marianne Radley, Pizza Hut’s chief brand officer for nearly two years, has left the chain.
“Marianne Radley is no longer with Pizza Hut U.S. Her backfill will be the subject of a future announcement,” Yum Brands, Pizza Hut’s parent company, said in a statement released Monday afternoon.
The Louisville, Ky.-based company, whose other divisions include Taco Bell and KFC, provided no additional details about Radley’s departure.
Radley came to Pizza Hut in February 2018 after spending a bulk of her career in the beverage industry, most recently as senior vice president of global marketing at Monster Energy.
Her abrupt exit comes as the brand’s U.S. operations has struggled with relevancy. The company is closing hundreds of locations including legacy “red roof” restaurants as it focuses on its growing carryout-focused restaurants.
Yet, over the summer Radley’s team paid tribute to Pizza Hut’s dine-in roots by bringing back the brand’s throwback red-roof logo design. At the time, she said Pizza Hut was boldly reminding quick-service fans that the Plano, Texas-based company is the “OG” of pizza chains.
Radley told NRN that the opposing strategies — off-premise focus vs. red-roof image — can work together.
“Red roof is an iconic asset. It’s a brand tone change, not an infrastructure change,” she said during a June interview.
Pizza Hut has more than 16,800 restaurants around the world. Of those, about 7,500 are in the U.S. In Yum's latest quarter, the U.S. division of Pizza Hut reported a 3% decline in same-store sales. Transactions in the quarter were hurt a change in the brand’s value offerings.
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