National Restaurant Chain With Many IL Eateries Closing Hundreds Of Locations

A national restaurant chain with a prominent Illinois presence is planning to shutter 250 eateries this year.

Pizza Hut is closing what it calls “underperforming” locations across the country in the first half of this year. The announcement came from Pizza Hut’s parent company, Yum! Brands in a Feb. 4 earnings call.

Yum! Chief Financial Officer Ranjith Roy said that the move was part of “Hut Forward,” a strategy which includes “vibrant marketing, modernization of technology and franchise agreements.”

“The 250 stores that we mentioned is a very small portion of the 20,000-unit estate that Pizza Hut has globally,” Roy said during the earnings call. “And it is the right answer for the brand as we move through the strategic review.”

According to Restaurant Dive, of the 19,872 Pizza Hut locations globally, about 6,300 are located in the United States.

Yum! also operates the KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill chains.

Yum! did not announce which specific Pizza Hut locations will be closing. According to the Pizza Hut website, the chain operates 170 locations in Illinois.