Pizza Hut on Monday announced extended operating hours. Thousands of Pizza Hut locations nationwide will now stay open until midnight or later, with several restaurants even staying open as late as 2 a.m.

Late-night diners can indulge in the full Pizza Hut menu for delivery, or carryout past the stroke of midnight in select stores across the country. Pizza Hut said it recognized the undeniable trend toward late-night dining among the younger generation and is seizing this opportunity to satisfy these after-dinner hankerings. By extending its hours, Pizza Hut aims to bridge this gap and cater to customers’ desires. 

Leveraging its partnerships with aggregators, Pizza Hut is able to expand customers’ accessibility and unlock the ability to service customers with ease. To optimize the delivery-specific operations, Pizza Hut is using the cutting-edge Dragontail technology to support the goal that each menu item arrives hot and fresh.  

Pizza Hut last year started working with third-party delivery providers to offset staffing challenges. While the labor situation has improved since then, Yum! Brands said this past quarter it continues to deepen partnerships with the three major food aggregators to bolster fulfillment during peak times. 

Dragontail, a platform that automates kitchen flow and driver dispatch processes, was launched in over 1,000 additional restaurants in Q1. Pizza Hut’s domestic system led the charge by doubling the number of stores that are equipped with the technology. Around 400 KFC stores in Canada launched the platform, too. 

To open the fiscal year, Pizza Hut, which drove an 8 percent domestic increase in same-store sales, opened 271 gross new restaurants in 31 countries and ended the quarter with 19,046 units. It had 40 openings and 56 closures in the U.S. for a net decline of 17 restaurants and exited with 6,544 units in the U.S. 

Fast Food, News