Historical Highlights
Historical Highlights
| Year | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 1958 | The first Pizza Hut restaurant opens in Wichita, Kansas, owned and operated by Dan and Frank Carney. |
| 1959 | Pizza Hut is incorporated in Kansas and the first franchise unit opens in Topeka, Kansas. |
| 1965 | Basic freestanding design of Pizza Hut restaurant adopted. "Putt-Putt to Pizza Hut" musical jingle developed. |
| 1966 | First Home Office built in Wichita to handle business for the 145 Pizza Hut Restaurants. |
| 1968 | International Pizza Hut Franchise Holders Association (IPHFHA) is organised. International market entered with opening of Pizza Hut restaurant in Canada. |
| 1969 | Red roof adopted for restaurants. First Pizza Hut restaurant opened in Mexico. |
| 1970 | Sandwiches added to basic menu of Thin "n' Crispy pizza, salad, beer and soft drinks. First restaurant opens in Belfield, Sydney during April. |
| 1971 | Pizza Hut becomes the number one pizza restaurant chain in the world in both sales and number of restaurants. |
| 1972 | Pizza Hut, Inc. listed on New York Stock Exchange. Restaurant number 1,000 opens. |
| 1973 | Pizza Hut restaurants opened in Japan and England. |
| 1976 | International Pizza Hut restaurants total 100 while entire system reaches 2,000. |
| 1977 | Pizza Hut, Inc. stockholders overwhelmingly approve merger with PepsiCo, Inc. New $10 million Pizza Hut Home Office building opens in Wichita. |
| 1980 | Pan Pizza is introduced throughout the system. Restaurant number 4.000 opens. |
| 1982 | New decor packages are designed and installation begins. Two hundred and sixty-seven Pizza Hut restaurants operate in Australia. |
| 1983 | Pizza Hut Australia begins its Home Delivery operations in Brisbane, soon spreading to every state in Australia. |
| 1985 | Sydney begins operations in Pizza Hut Home Delivery. |
| 1986 | Pizza Hut celebrates the opening of its 5,000th restaurant, located in Dallas, Texas. Delivery service, as a new concept, is widely initiated. |
| 1987 | PepsiCo Australia, merged with the Dial-a-Dino's network of Home Delivery Units, establishing Pizza Hut Australia as the national leader in the fast food industry. |
| 1988 | Pizza Hut celebrates its 30th anniversary with a total of more than 6,000 restaurants and delivery units worldwide. |
| 1990 | Gorky St Pizza Hut Moscow opens, seating 400 customers over 3 floors of the restaurant. Extensive development throughout the world continues. |
| 1993 | Pizza Hut Inc. Worldwide system retail sales at $6.4 Billion (PepsiCo $17.4 Billion). There are over 10,000 Pizza Hut units throughout 25 countries. |
| 1997 | Yum! Restaurants is formed, making Pizza Hut a part of the world's largest Restaurant chain with KFC and Taco Bell spinning from PepsiCo. |
| 1999 | Pizza Hut has the greatest number of outlets of any Australian Convenience food company with a total of 464 outlets in Australia and New Zealand (230 Restaurants, 185 Delivery Units, 19 Express Units and 30 Kiosk Units). |
| 2001 | Pizza Hut introduces ‘Inferno Heated Pizza Pack’, which uses the most technological advanced delivery systems, keeping deliveries hotter and fresher than Ever. |
| 2002 | Pizza Hut introduces ‘Perfecto Base’, a hand-stretched, traditional style pizza base. |