Nearly 100 Pizza Huts To Test Beer Delivery

As restaurant operators seek to bolster sales in the face of weak traffic growth, Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut is bringing beer delivery to approximately 100 of its restaurants in California and Arizona. The restaurant chain had begun testing the service in Phoenix back in December, Reuters reported.

The new rollout will include cities such as Tucson, Prescott and Winslow in Arizona, and Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Sacramento and Santa Barbara in California. As it stands, over 1,700 Pizza Hut locations in the U.S. have liquor licenses.

Pizza Hut Chief Marketing Officer Zipporah Allen told Reuters, “Many Pizza Hut restaurants are already licensed to serve and distribute beer, without third-party services, additional fees or extended wait times.”

In order to deliver beer, Pizza Hut drivers must be at least 21 years old and have training in liquor laws. In addition, the drivers will be able to cancel a beer order if customers can’t verify their ages.

The news comes as Yum! Brands is buying a 3 percent ownership stake in Grubhub and is teaming up with the company to provide delivery and online ordering in the future from two of its brands, KFC and Taco Bell.

In February, Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney told CNBC, “The partnership with Yum!, which we announced this morning, will accelerate the expansion of our delivery network and amplify our diner acquisition efforts, raising consumer awareness of online ordering and driving more volume for all restaurants across our platform,”

The partnership comes as fast food chains have increased their appetite for delivery. McDonald’s, for example, has rolled out delivery to 5,000 of its approximately 14,000 U.S. stores. And customers typically spend more when they order delivery, according to McDonald’s.

Grubhub has been in expansion mode. In 2017, it gobbled up at least three different food delivery competitors: Boston-based Foodler, Groupon’s OrderUp and, most recently, Yelp’s Eat24.