Pizza Hut Delivery to open 40 new sites with Nine Group

Pizza Hut Delivery has announced a franchise partnership with Nine Group, a developer and manager of multiple branded hotels across the UK.

The deal will see Nine Group become the franchisee for 31 existing Pizza Hut Delivery and Express Huts. An additional 30 Delivery and 10 Express huts will open over the next three years, creating around 800 new jobs.

Nine Group currently has 15 hotels in its portfolio, including the Novotel London Heathrow Airport and London O2 Arena Hotel - North Greenwich.

The deal forms part of wider UK expansion plans for Pizza Hut Delivery, which last November announced plans to open 125 new sites over three years, creating around 2,000 new jobs.

The company, which has 350 sites in the UK and Ireland, last year delivered an additional 565,000 meals between March and July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, and sales have continued to grow into 2021.

Neil Manhas, general manager at Pizza Hut Delivery in the UK, said: "This partnership is a testament to the growth we have seen this year, as well as the incredible work of each of our team members who have brought us through a challenging 18 months, and I cannot thank them enough for their hard work."

The first new opening under the partnership will be a Pizza Hut Express at the Merryhill Centre in Dudley in December.

Image: Shutterstock / Claudio Diviza