Pizza Hut, one of Australia’s most recognised brands, has opened the doors to its 300th store in Labrador, QLD, bringing great tasting pizza and value to customers across the Gold Coast.
Acting Mayor of the City of Gold Coast, Donna Gates, joined Pizza Hut general manager Graeme Houston and store staff for the official “dough cutting” ceremony to mark the opening of the store.
The new Labrador store follows an aggressive year of expansion during which Pizza Hut invested over $5million into store openings across the country.
Pizza Hut general manager Graeme Houston said the 300th store was an important milestone to reach following a year of development priority.
“For more than 40 years, Pizza Hut has operated as one of Australia’s most recognised brands bringing with it affordable, restaurant-quality food to Australian homes and prosperous franchising opportunities to entrepreneurial people around the country.
“Increasing our store footprint has been a major focus for our business this year, and will continue into 2014. As competition intensifies, we need to ensure our brand is accessible and convenient for our customers,” Houston said.
“We are continually looking to partner with entrepreneurial and driven partners across Australia, with a particular focus on Queensland and Western Australia where we hope to open an additional 60 stores over the next three years. It’s predicted that outlet growth within the pizza takeaway industry to 2016 is as high as 23 per cent and we plan to be a major contributor to that statistic,” he said.
Pizza Hut Labrador franchisees, Phil and Maree Berry, said the new partnership with Pizza Hut was a dream come true.
“We conducted due diligence with numerous franchise operations and it was Pizza Hut that really struck a chord. We wanted to align with a brand that would grow with us as we hope to be a multiple franchise holder as soon as it’s viable,” Phil Berry said.
“We were also hugely attracted to Pizza Hut as we felt the company empowered us to take control of our own local community engagement and sponsorship, which surprisingly other franchise systems don’t encourage.
“The Gold Coast was also an attractive market for us when looking for a site. We moved from Sydney for the lifestyle and growing market. There are some major events on their way to the Gold Coast and therefore potential for significant growth,” Berry said.
The new store – the 10th in the Gold Coast and the 75th in Queensland – has created more than 30 new local job opportunities.
“We’ve hired 25 new staff already, and continue to look to fill roles for six supervisors and numerous delivery positions. Anyone interested in joining our local team should visit www.pizzahut.com.au,” Berry said.