Pizza Hut wants to make sure customers don’t get hungry or thirsty during Super Bowl LIII. The pizza chain is expanding its beer delivery service to 300 new locations across Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, and additional locations in California and Arizona just in time for game day.
The company’s innovative beer delivery program launched in late 2017 in a few markets. The pilot program began in Arizona and some parts of California in 2018. With the addition of the new locations offering the service, Pizza Hut is on track to meet the goal of expanding beer delivery capabilities to 1,000 restaurants by summer 2019.
While it’s unclear what the beverage offering will include in new markets, some of the current six pack offerings include Bud Light, Shock Top, and Budweiser. Last year Stacy Lynn Bourgeois, director of customer acquisition at YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut’s parent company), told QSR Pizza Hut is perfectly positioned to pull beer delivery off. Many locations already serve beer and wine, and are licensed to serve and distribute. Thus Pizza Hut can instantly leverage its massive delivery system and eliminate the need for a third-party vendor.
“Being able to offer beer delivery at our location is a great upgrade, and having it launch right before Super Bowl is a game changer for us,” Carl Vannostrand, president and COO of CFL Pizza, a Pizza Hut franchisee organization, said in a statement. “Super Bowl Sunday is one of our biggest days of the year, and now we have the chance to bring ice-cold beer and oven hot pizza to the table during the big game.”
As the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, the brand appropriately timed the expansion of the beer delivery service with the biggest football game of the year. According to Pizza Hut, the Super Bowl is one of the busiest days of the year for the company. In a statement Pizza Hut noted a recent survey showed 86 percent of Americans plan to serve both pizza and beer at their upcoming Super Bowl party this year.
Customers can now get both in one place.
“As the official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL, we’ve been celebrating football fans all season long, so it only makes sense for us to bring more customers the beloved combo of pizza and beer ahead of the Super Bowl,” Marianne Radley, chief brand officer, Pizza Hut, added in a statement. “We are proud to be pioneers of beer delivery and are well-poised to take on more markets in the coming year.”