Do we like them?

Do we like Pizza Hut?

Global pizza chain, founded 1958, mostly run by franchisees; about $10bn in system sales. Now a standalone business.

Our score: 4 out of 10. Not yet. The brand is shrinking, franchisees keep going bust, and it has a long record of wage settlements. New private-equity owners are unproven, so we'd wait and see.

Pizza Hut dates back to 1958 and spent decades inside Yum! Brands, alongside KFC and Taco Bell. Yum began a strategic review of it in late 2025. It then agreed in June 2026 to sell it for $2.7bn in two deals: one for China, one for everywhere else.

The sale closed on 1 September 2026. Private equity firm LongRange Capital bought the non-China business for about $1.5bn, and Yum China took Mainland China. Aaron Powell, global CEO since 2021, left. Eduardo Luz, formerly of P.F. Chang's and Panera, is interim boss.

Business has been rough. Restaurant Dive reported US same-store sales fell 5% in 2025, and Yum said it would close about 250 US stores in the first half of 2026. In the UK, franchisee DC London Pie went into administration and 68 stores were set to close, with up to 1,210 jobs at risk.

Workers have had a mixed deal. Pizza Hut agreed to pay $12.5m to settle overtime class actions by restaurant managers. A $5.1m driver-expenses settlement was approved by a court in 2006. In 2026 a Texas franchisee agreed to pay $35,000 to settle an EEOC harassment suit.

Why 4/10? It's a loved brand in a weak state, with franchisees under strain and a fresh owner that hasn't published a plan. Private equity can turn chains around, but it can also squeeze them. We'd want to see how the new owners treat franchisees and staff before we backed them.