Pizza Hut: Romanians are more careful when buying something

The falling consumption was felt differently in Pizza Hut restaurants. Thus, whereas Bucharest saw declining sales, in the restaurants in the rest of Romania sales are rising.
Domestically, Pizza Hut owns 13 restaurants, eight of which in Bucharest, two in Cluj and one in Constanţa, Iaşi and Timişoara.
In 2011, the company does not plan to open any new restaurants, but on the contrary, Carmen Lupuleţ, a marketing manager with Pizza Hut, says that the Bucharest network can be deemed as mature, and the market of other cities needs to be carefully researched before opening.
Pizza Hut will expand further, but on the segment of home deliveries, with a new PHD outlet due to be opened in the first half of this year. It will be located in Bucharest, in the fifth sector.
Lupuleţ says that while in 2010 the firm was more aggressive in opening new outlets, this year it will count on strengthening its Bucharest business, with one project entailing the introduction of online orders.
The financial crisis hurt restaurant market players as consumption declined. "However, one can see consumption behaviour changes. Romanians are more careful when buying something, we can no longer see the waste of boom years," says Lupuleţ.