Pizza Hut history

A year later, in 1959, Pizza Hut was incorporated in Kansas, and Dick Hassur opened the first franchise unit in Topeka, Kansas.

In 1962, the Carney brothers bought out the interest held by Bender, and Robert Chisholm joined the company as treasurer.

By the year 1963, a mere 5 years after the initial store was opened, Pizza Hut was able to hire George Lindstrom, a world-renowned architect, to come up with and implement a unified design language to take the brand to the next level.

The first Pizza Hut ad campaign was enacted and launched in 1965.

By 1966 Pizza Hut had grown to 145 units.

A couple of years later, in 1967, the company got rid of Pizza Hut Pete and introduced the now-iconic lettering and red-roofed construction of their restaurants.

The Carneys developed the International Pizza Hut Franchise Holders Association (IPHFHA) in 1968 in an effort to buy back 40 percent of the Pizza Hut franchises.

By 1969 the pizza restaurant had moved across borders, with various restaurants opening in Canada and even some in Australia.

In early 1970 Frank Carney decided that the company practice of relying on statistics from its annual report to inform its business strategy was inadequate, and that a more developed, long-term business plan was necessary.

In 1971 Pizza Hut became the world's largest pizza chain, according to sales and number of restaurants--then just more than 1,000 in all.

He decided to take the company public by selling 410,000 shares in 1972.

In 1973 Pizza Hut expanded further by opening outlets in Japan and Great Britain.

To raise its profile, Pizza Hut introduced "Pan Pizza" in 1980 throughout its network.

In 1984 Steven Reinemund was appointed president and chief executive officer of Pizza Hut.

In 1986 Pizza Hut opened its 5,000th franchise unit, in Dallas, Texas, and began its successful home delivery service.

In 1990 Pizza Hut opened its first restaurant in Moscow.

Company sales at the pizza chain were up ten percent worldwide to $5.3 billion in 1991 as growing health awareness and the popularity of vegetarian lifestyles had prompted many people to reconsider pizza as a nutritious alternative to greasy fast food fare.

In 1992, the Book It! program involved more than 17 million students in North America alone, and Pizza Hut received letters of endorsement that year from President George Bush and Secretary of Education Lámar Alexander.

In an effort to change this disturbing direction, Roger A. Enrico moved from PepsiCo's beverage and snack food divisions to head the restaurant division in 1994.

Some indicators were promising: market share rose from 25.6 to 27 percent; 1995 sales increased 16 percent to $5.2 billion; and operating income rose to $414 million, up 40 percent from the year before.

In 1996 Pizza Hut planned to introduce a major new product each year and two or three line extensions.

As part of its restructuring, Pizza Hut launched a campaign in 1997 to restore the company's image by improving the quality of its pizza.

Pizza Hut planned to introduce them nationally in 1998.

In 2010 the logo was renewed once more.

Nearing the end of 2014, Pizza Hut Corporate announced further modernizing of the restaurant’s identity.