After Lagging Sales, Pizza Hut Replaces CEO

Despite being one of the biggest names in the pizza industry, Pizza Hut has been struggling in the market lately. A previous Inquisitr report revealed that Pizza Hut’s third quarter earnings were lagging far behind targets for 2014. Domino’s seems to be the primary competitor drawing from Pizza Hut’s sales. Sales estimates were off as much as 3%.

Due to the lacking profits, Pizza Hut has started taking some drastic measures to get the business back on its feet. One of the biggest days for pizza sales just passed by, Halloween, and it didn’t seem to do Pizza Hut any good. As a result, they’ve decided to replace their CEO with a fresh new face.

According to Americas Market, the parent company to Pizza Hut (Yum! Brands), has appointed 51-year-old David Gibbs to the position. Gibbs has been a long-time executive of the Pizza Hut brand and will take over as CEO on January 1, 2015. Pizza Hut will be replacing their former CEO, Scott Bergen, who will be retiring after more than 20 years with the brand.

The Pizza Hut leadership overhaul also seems to have been prompted by a slight drop in Yum stock, which was off 27 cents.

NRN reported on Pizza Hut’s decision to replace their CEO, claiming that David Gibbs will take control of the Pizza Hut U.S. division where he currently serves as president in Louisville, Kentucky. As CEO, Gibbs is also expected to manage the marketing strategies of more than 13,000 restaurants in separate reporting divisions outside of China and India.

“Greg Creed, who takes over as CEO of Yum! Brands in January, and I are both confident David will lead Pizza Hut to the next level and widen its gap as the category leader all around the world,” said David C. Novak, the chairman and chief executive of Pizza Hut’s parent company, in a statement.

“I’m thrilled about continuing to work alongside my entire management team, as well as with our franchise and corporate partners, to move our brand forward all over the world,” said David Gibbs.

Including Pizza Hut, Yum! Brands run more than 40,000 restaurants in more than 125 countries and territories.

Pizza Hut has also been taking some other strategies to increase revenue, including introducing the “Skinny Slice” at Pizza Hut locations in Toledo and Palm Beach and testing the sale of individual pizza slices at other locations. Otherwise, Pizza Hut has not released a new product in 2014 that found any kind of success.

[Image courtesy of Pizza Hut]