One Man Is On A Mission To Help Restore Pizza Hut’s Former Glory
Pizza Hut has gone in a new direction by turning select locations retro amid struggling sales, with one man having helped spearhead the launch of “Pizza Hut Classic” stores.
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President Tim Sparks of the Kansas-based Daland Corporation, which manages 38 of the retro-themed “Pizza Hut Classic” locations, has pushed to return the restaurant chain to its roots, The New York Times reported. Sparks, who started at Pizza Hut as a dishwasher in 1983 before being promoted to management, hopes to bring families together via a nostalgic dining experience. The Classic stores feature the checkered tablecloths, tints of stained glass, lavish lamps, signature salad bars and arcade games of the 1980s. They have emerged as the chain has faced falling sales and closures.
“If we could get them in here as a family, they do tend to put their phones down and actually have conversations and speak with each other,” Sparks told CBS News in an interview published May 14. “I’m not going to tell you I know how to fix the world. But I do think that family is a good place to start.” (RELATED: New York Times Writer Freaks Out Over Pro-Family Report For Most Insane Reason)
Pizza Hut faces its ninth consecutive quarterly decline in sales in the last quarter of 2025, according to the Times. In February, the company announced it would shutter 250 locations across the country. In recent times, Pizza Hut locations have frequently looked more like this:
SHREVEPORT, LA – JUNE 29: Pizza Hut store in Shreveport, Louisiana on June 29, 2018. (Photo by Shannon O’Hara/Getty Images for Pizza Hut)
However, the “Pizza Hut Classic” has been gaining traction. The rollout was executed as a partnership between the company and certain franchisees, the Times reported. In 2019, the first remodel took place in Ashdown, Arkansas, and approximately 144 locations were converted as of March.
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Thee owner of the Pizza Hut brand, Yum Brands, did not make any mention of Classic locations on its website, according to the Times. Pizza Hut chief marketing officer Melissa Friebe said she was not even aware of the origin story of the Classic nor how many of the over 6,000 Pizza Hut locations fall under the label.
Only certain markets qualify to be turned into Classics, mainly small-town storefronts that sport the red roof and are far away from other urban centers, with the firm offering franchisees a “Classic Remodel Playbook” featuring the requirements.
Classic locations are reportedly adorned with a plaque. “This Pizza Hut Classic celebrates our heritage with a design that’s reminiscent of our original dine-in restaurants,” the plaque reads, Inc.com reported. “It reminds us of the Pizza Hut where generations of Americans first fell in love with pizza.”
Sparks told CBS News that some customers are traveling from “two and three hours away” to fulfill their taste for Pizza Hut nostalgia. “And I’m not making that up,” Sparks added.
“It just brings back memories,” one customer told CBS News.
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