Pizza Hut reportedly planning to enter the grocery stores to achieve bigger presence in the food market

Pizza Hut may be planning to bring its pizzas to grocery stores to obtain a bigger slice of share in the food market. According to PYMNTS, it seems that the pizza chain has this ambition of getting into the consumer packaged goods or CPG, which will enable it to infiltrate the supermarkets.

This assumption comes after Yum Brands, Pizza Hut’s parent company, recently announced it hired a new chief executive officer. Aaron Powell was named as the new chief, and he is scheduled to assume office on Sept. 20.

In any case, restaurants like Pizza Hut are looking for ways to have more customers and grow their earnings. One way to do this is to secure a portion of consumers’ food spending. This means that the pizza restaurant can achieve this if its products could be sold where the consumers mostly shop for food like groceries.

Now, since the new Pizza Hut CEO is said to have expertise in the CPG business, it is more likely for the company to take this route too. Besides, with the food items that the pizza chain has, they can be easily packed and sold in supermarkets and even convenience stores.

In fact, it was mentioned that many major food business brands have already ventured into CPG and sold their products outside of their own restaurants. Some of the companies that are already in this method of selling include Auntie Anne’s Cinnabon, Jamba, Tesco, Cheesecake Factory, and more. It was reported that they saw success through an increase in sales, so it only proved to be an effective strategy to reach more customers.

“There was phenomenal demand as buying patterns shifted,” Focus Brands Global Channels’ president, Dave Mikita, said. “Most retailers were trying to keep up with demand, and we were able to take advantage of that growth in grocery.”

Meanwhile, whether Pizza Hut is joining the long list of companies that have entered the CPG business will depend on its new CEO’s plans for the company. Aaron Powell was said to be a former president of Kimberly-Clark’s Asia-Pacific CPG business before being hired by Yum Brands. Pizza Hut is excited to have him on board, and the company believes he can do a lot for the brand.

“Aaron brings more than 25 years of deep experience in the business-to-business and consumer packaged goods sectors and is known for driving breakthrough innovation and delivering strong performance for iconic household name brands operating in complex environments around the world,” Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs said in a press release. “We’re fortunate to have a global growth strategist of Aaron’s caliber join the accomplished Pizza Hut leadership team.”