Pizza Hut customers in more states can get beer delivered with their pizzas.
The Plano, Texas-based chain on Monday announced that it has expanded its beer delivery test to five more states: Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina and Ohio, along with more locations in California and Arizona.
That gives Pizza Hut 300 locations where it delivers beer, and the chain plans to expand the service to 1,000 restaurants by this summer. The chain operates 7,500 locations in the U.S.
The expansion comes ahead of the upcoming Super Bowl, one of the chain’s busiest days of the year—the company said that 86% of Americans plan to serve both pizza and beer for their Super Bowl party. This will be the first time that Pizza Hut is the official pizza chain of the NFL for the game.
“It only makes sense for us to bring more customers the beloved combo of pizza and beer ahead of the Super Bowl,” Marianne Radley, chief brand officer for Pizza Hut, said in a statement.
Restaurant chains have been slowly dipping their toes into beer delivery as the market for the service grows. Beverage delivery is believed to be the next frontier as more companies seek to make available a wider array of products to customers who want meals brought to their homes.
For Pizza Hut, however, beer delivery represents an opportunity to add alcohol to its menu and to differentiate it from its primary competitors that have traditionally stuck to nonalcoholic beverages.
The chain launched a pilot program in 2017 in Arizona and then parts of California. Franchisees have jumped on board to add the service, enabling the company to expand beer delivery to the additional states. Pizza Hut promised more markets to be “forthcoming.”
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