Pizza Hut serves cocktails in an effort to win back the hipster generation
Pizza Hut, that bastion of teenage dining, has unveiled plans to win back the hipster generation – by serving cocktails.
Yep, from now on you can sip a Southern Punch as you chow down on your Texas Meat Meltdown, after the chain announced plans to spend £1.67m on a major revamp.
Pizza Hut on The Strand became the first to unveil its new look last week, which cost £500,000 and comes complete with oak flooring, red leather banquettes and an open kitchen.
Apparently trials of the rejigged restaurants have already caused sales to jump 35 per cent.
Homeless, or in an Apple-style queue for pizza? Difficult to say… (Source: Pizza Hut)
Mike Spencer, Pizza Hut's operations director, suggested the likes of Pizza Express have nabbed its market.
In the eighties we were the only show in town in pizza, now we're not. A lot of people came as young children but moved on to places like Pizza Express when they grew up and never came back to us. We want to make Pizza Hut relevant to those young adults.
He added that Pizza Hut "have to break down that perception that our pizzas are not fresh".
The good news is that there are signs the UK's fast food market is picking up: last year, takeaway website Just Eat was valued at more than £1bn, while a study by VoucherCodes showed Britain spends £29.4bn on takeaways and fast food each year – although pizza found itself languishing at fourth place, behind Chinese food, Indian food and fish and chips.