Pizza Hut Israel

History

Pizza Hut Israel opened their first restaurant in 1990, under the master franchisee Clal Chains, a subsidiary of Clal Industries. Initially the chain opened many restaurants in Israeli and was very successful It was in 1996, when Shlomo Duhoki through his company Penthouse paid the sum of USD 12M and bought the business from Clal Chains. In 2002 Pizza Hut Israel switch hands again, Dor Alon the Gas company takes over the busiess from Shlomo Duhoki. in 2005 Udi Shamai becomes a partner with Dor Alon holding 30% of the business, after 3 years, in 2008 Udi buys the rest of the shares from Dor through a company controlled by him named Tabasco Holdings. By the time of this announcement Pizza Hut was down to 25 branches, from 33 branches in 2002. Some of the branches that remained were moved from large sit down locations to smaller delivery focused locations.

At the time of the acquisition the chain was down to 20 branches. Tabasco although retaining ownership of some locations, also began franchising other locations in Israel.

During 2010, Niv Zilberstien joined Udi Shamai and became a Share holder in Tabasco Holdings.

In August 2013 Pizza Hut Israel released an Android and iPhone app to allow you to track your order status in real time.

In 2013 Pizza Hut Israel reached 50 branches, and as of September 2014 there were 56 branches Pizza Hut is operating 78 stores as of October 2016.

Kashrut

Pizza Hut Israel, is basically a Kosher Chain, carrying only Kosher products. Most stores carry Kashrut Mehoderet, a higher level of Kashrut.

Passover

A number of Pizza Hut Israel locations remain open during Passover. Due to the Chametz Law in Israel, no restaurant can serve any chametz product, which pizza is.

In 2014, 18 branches remained open during Passover.

Fare

Pizza Hut Israel offers a wide selection of food. Including the traditional deep dish, they also offer a thin crust pizza. In addition to pizza, they offer salads, quiche, focaccia and various desserts.

Pizza Hut Israel is also one of the few Israeli chains that offers a gluten free pizza option. As of September 2014, 32 of the Pizza Hut Israel branches offered gluten free pizza.

West Bank franchises

Many fast food chains in the West Bank such as McDonald's have trouble getting franchises without going through the Israeli franchisee. Pizza Hut however did not feel this was needed and allowed the first Palestinian owned location to open in Ramallah in 2012.

Pizza Hut has allowed Israeli franchises to open in areas within the Jewish areas of the West Bank under the Israeli franchise agreement as well. This has called on many to boycott Pizza Hut in protest of this.

In popular culture

In 2013, CEO and owner Udi Shamai appeared on the third episode of the first season of Undercover Boss Israel.