By Rohit Vaid
New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) After surpassing pre-Covid sales average, QSR major Pizza Hut India expects demand to sustain on the back of festive season as well as the brand’s focus on its delivery channel.
In a conversation with IANS, Pizza Hut India MD Merrill Pereyra said: “We see this robust growth continuing well into the next year, especially on our ‘Contactless Delivery’ channel.”
“Our delivery sales are already back to pre-Covid levels and takeaway is also close behind.”
According to Pereyra, the brand was better equiped and prepared to handle the onslaught of the second Covid-19 wave.
Besides, the QSR major’s increased focus on digital media and upgradation of digital assets ensured accessibility.
“Demand has definitely picked up. From an average daily sales perspective, Pizza Hut surpassed the pre-Covid average in July 2021 and our owned delivery platforms (mobile app, m-site, website) had outperformed food aggregators on big important days.”
“Also, our dine-in coupled with continued growth on delivery and takeaway channels saw Pizza Hut closing Q1 in 2021 with positive growth vs last year.”
Besides, he cited the commencement of a sustainable demand trend as more and more people get fully vaccinated.
“However, it all depends on the efficacy of vaccines as well as the threat of a potential third wave.”
Furthermore, the QSR major intends to focus on expanding its presence, especially in the Tier-II and III cities.
“We plan to enter several new cities, including tier II and tier III markets, whilst expansion into tier I cities will continue parallelly.”
Additionally, Pereyra said that brand will focus on opening assets in its ‘Fast Casual Delco’ format or FCD.
“FCDs are delivery first assets that also offer dine-in and takeaway services. We opened our first FCD in 2016, and today we have over 110 FCDs in India.”
The company, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. was founded in 1958.
It entered India over two decades ago with a restaurant in Bengaluru.
The QSR major operates more than 18,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.
In India, the company operates 500 outlets.
(Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)
–IANS
rv/sn/vd
