The Hindu Business Line : Pizza Hut to scale up

PIZZA Hut, which is on an aggressive expansion spree, plans to scale up this year to a 100 restaurants in the country from the 70 it has now. The company also plans to move into smaller cities, said Mr Raghuvesh Sarup, Manager (Marketing), Yum! Restaurants International, Pizza Hut's parent company. Some of the cities to be tapped this year include Pondicherry, Vishakhapatnam, Madurai and Meerut.

While expansion, and consolidation of the existing restaurants, remain the focus,, Pizza Hut is also gearing up to tickle the taste buds of customers in every corner of the country. Its latest offering is yet another pan-Hindustan range - the Chettinad range.

The move to launch these flavours is to undo the common perception that pizzas are bland, he said, adding, "The Indian consumer traditionally prefers hot and spicy food." The Tandoori range, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, weaves in the robust flavours of Punjab. The new Chettinad range draws inspiration from the traditionally spicy cuisine from the interiors of Tamil Nadu, Mr Sarup told Business Line.

The pizzas are available in two vegetarian and non-vegetarian variants of Veg Nilgiri, Dakshin Paneer, Southern Supreme and Deccan Chicken.

Brushing aside criticism of new launches making for mere marketing gimmicks, Mr Sarup said, "The introduction of these customised ranges are based on our interaction with consumers. The launch of the Tandoori range earlier proved that the consumer was open to such variants."

Pizza Hut, which made its foray into India with a dine-in restaurant in Bangalore in June 1996, today enjoys 48 per cent share of the market. "We expect a 40-50 per cent increase in business in both the segments, dine-in as well as delivery," he said.

Further, the company is also set to roll out its television commercial for the Chettinad and Tandoori range in a month's time. The company's ad spend is Rs 10 crore per year, he said.

According to Mr Sarup, Pizza Hut's growth in the country is driven by developing products suited to the local palate, significant investments in the quality and training of manpower, an extensive vendor development programme and a commitment to source and develop the right location and facility.

Pizza Hut sources almost all its raw material from within India. Its policy of vendor empowerment has yielded rich dividends, he said.