The market analysts at foodservice industry consultant Technomic have released the 2009 Top 100 Limited-Service Pizza Chains Restaurant Report and the word is that pizza chain operators survived the slow economy and flat sales in 2008 and 2009 through focused positioning and differentiation. The fastest moving pizza chains staked out highly-defined market positions for themselves by identifying emerging trends, and establishing a strong position through differentiation from the competition.
The Report analyzed the leading pizza chains against industry trends and metrics and found that the top 100 pizza chains in the U.S. had sales of $18.8 billion in 2008, while the total limited-service pizza industry grossed $29 billion. Those numbers reflect an annual growth of 0.4% for the whole segment and a 2% lift for the top 100 chains.
Leading the top 100, the Pizza Hut stores showed 3.9% growth over the year prior with sales of $5.3 billion in U.S. alone. Domino’s Pizza followed in second place with $3 billion in sales and Papa John’s racked up $2 billion for third on the list. Surprisingly, Domino’s sales slipped nearly 5% in 2008, while Papa John’s sales increased by just over 3% in the same period. The four fastest growing limited-service pizza chains for the year were Straw Hat Pizza, ZPizza, Puccini’s Smiling Teeth Pizza and RedBrick Pizza.
Top 5 pizza chains in U.S. estimated sales volume for 2009:
- Pizza Hut - $5.0 billion
- Domino's Pizza - $3.0 billion
- Papa John's - $2.1 billion
- Little Caesars - $1.1 billion
- Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza - $0.6 billion
Source: Technomic