Pizza has come a long way since its origins in Naples in the 18th century, when someone
decided to bake a round flat bread covered in tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.
That pizza was the Neapolitan, made at the time for a visit to Naples by the Queen of
Italy, Margherita of Savoy.
It wasn’t until soldiers stationed in Italy in the 40s tasted the dish that it took off
around the world.
Nowadays you’ll find it almost anywhere, with every country experimenting with variations
of pizza.
That might be the Chicago deep-dish in the U.S., a haggis topping in Scotland, or maybe
some kangaroo on your pizza in Australia.
As for condiments, they might be ketchup, (wusteshir) Worcestershire sauce, chili sauce,
or even mayo.
Today we’ll focus on two pizza fast food giants, in this episode of the Infographics
Show, Pizza Hut vs Dominos.
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We’ll start with some background.
Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney, two brothers from Wichita, Kansas.
After asking their mother for 600 dollars to start their first restaurant, they opened
with a bang, giving free pizza to anyone that attended the first night.
There aren’t too many people that don’t like pizza, and soon after they opened their
first restaurant, they opened a franchise in Kansas just a year later.
The chain grew rapidly, and by 1966 there were 145 restaurants in the U.S. Soon after,
a restaurant opened in Canada, and after that, in 1970, Australia and Germany got their first
Pizza Hut.
In ’73, Japan and the UK followed.
There are currently around 16,000 restaurants in 120 countries.
Restaurants open and close all the time, so it’s difficult to get an exact number.
In 2016, BuzzFeed wrote that in the U.S. alone, following major closures, there were still
7,822 locations.
Domino’s Pizza follows quite a similar pattern.
It was also formed by two brothers, but a couple of years after Pizza Hut was founded.
Those brothers were Tom and James Monaghan, and they hailed from Ypsilanti, Michigan.
They borrowed 900 dollars to get going, and soon after the restaurant was a success.
Originally called DomiNick’s Pizza, Tom Monaghan, who’d been busily buying his brother
out, changed the name to Domino’s in 1965.
Like Pizza Hut, the restaurant experienced rapid growth, and in 1983 it started selling
pizza in Canada.
Again, like Pizza Hut, Japan and the UK were some of the other first countries to get Domino’s,
and in 1997 it had 1,500 locations worldwide.
As of 2016, Statistica writes that there were 9,000 Domino’s worldwide outside of the
U.S., and another 5,000-plus stores in the U.S. Domino’s operates in 85 countries as
of 2016.
DOMINO’S TWO LARGE TWO-TOPPING PIZZAS: $19.99 Pizza Hut looks like the bigger of the restaurants
so far, but what about profits?
Yum Brands, which is Pizza Hut’s parent company, had a market cap of $22.7 billion
in 2016 according to Forbes.
But we should remember that Yum also owns Taco Bell and KFC, as well as a bunch of other
restaurants, and we are talking only about Pizza Hut today.
Unfortunately, Yum doesn’t post its Pizza Hut profits, but the “Pizza Power 2017 - A
State of the Industry Report” by PMQ tells us that of the 128 billion dollar worldwide
pizza market, Pizza Hut is indeed the biggest WORLDWIDE PIZZA MARKET WORTH: hitter.
In terms of quality, though, PMQ didn’t put either restaurant in its top 20 list.
It did put Domino’s in eighth place as the most improved.
Domino’s revenue for 2016 was $2.47 billion and its profits were $214.7 million.
Yum’s profits were US$1.619 billion in the same year, but again, this included a handful
of brands.
Yum similarly doesn’t give a figure for the number of people employed by Pizza Hut,
but does say that across all brands it employs 1.5 million people.
Domino’s states that it employs around 260,000 people.
What might be more important is how the consumer feels.
According to reports in 2017, Domino’s has been dominating in advertising, and as Reuters
explains, the restaurant has been experiencing good growth.
Reuters says this is in stark contrast to Pizza Hut, “which has been struggling to
deliver same-store sales growth for four quarters.”
Why is this?
Well, in 2017 one writer for a website took it upon himself to do a taste and value test
of these two companies.
The writer said both had great deals – that’s why they are the top two chains in the U.S.
pizza market.
“Domino’s had two large two-topping pizzas for $19.99 total, and Pizza Hut had two large
two-topping pizzas for $7.99 each.
Those are both good deals,” wrote the reviewer.
Crust, said the writer, was Domino’s domain, with part of the reason being that garlic
is infused in it.
Sauce: Domino’s wins again.
The writer said it’s similar to Pizza Hut sauce, but sweeter.
As for topping, this reviewer got mathematical.
“There were 54 pepperoni coins on the pizza, meaning the total pepperoni surface area is
66.13” squared.
Divide that by the total topping surface area, and you’re left with a pepperoni coverage
potential of 62.34%,” he wrote.
That was Pizza Hut.
Domino’s topping coverage was sparser, and here Pizza Hut got the nod.
As PAPA JOHN’S for delivery, Domino’s was 2 minutes later than the scheduled time
and Pizza Hut one minute later.
Pizza Hut also stacked the delivery with tons of condiments and packets of parmesan cheese,
so Pizza Hut won again there.
But when it came down to the only important thing, taste, the reviewer’s conclusion
was that Domino’s tastes infinitely better, and more like real pizza-type pizza.
Americans should be pizza connoisseurs given that in 2014 the US Department of Agriculture
said that one in eight Americans will eat pizza every day.
There are plenty of taste tests out there to read.
Business Insider compared Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's in 2016, choosing various
toppings and also other things on the menu.
Pizza Hut won on the simple cheese pizza test and Domino’s took the crown for best supreme
pizza, while Papa John’s had the best breadsticks.
Another thing we should point out is that if you look at the American Customer Satisfaction
Index for every year, pizza restaurants always seem to come above other fast food restaurants.
But which pizza place gets the best ratings from customers?
For 2017 the index gives both Little Caesars and Domino’s a score of 78.
Pizza Hut, however, came behind with a score of 76.
But the winner of all American large pizza chains was Papa John’s with a score of 82.
We might also add something about health.
Pizza is tasty, but let’s not forget that it’s a major factor in the obesity epidemic
in the world today.
In fact, it seems that the more fast food restaurants pop-up in developing nations,
the fatter they get.
One large Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza contains 2,570 calories, which is more calories than
you should consume in an entire day.
Drink that with a Coke and have the ice cream for dessert, and you might want to spend the
next 4 hours on the treadmill.
Domino’s is slightly less fattening, with a large pepperoni pizza containing 2,478 calories.
But remember we already know Pizza Hut pizza has more pepperoni coins, so it can hardly
be a bad thing to be the more calorific pizza.
Pizza Hut’s super supreme contains 3,257 calories, while Domino’s Extravaganza Feast
contains 2,987 calories.
Lastly, if we look at the job site Indeed, we can see how employees feel about working
there.
Domino’s has 11,600 reviews and Pizza Hut has 15,800, and both companies have the same
3.9 stars out of 5.
As for bad reviews, on October 30th 2017 someone wrote about Pizza Hut, “The hours suck.
The pay sucks.
The coworkers suck.
It’s not very rewarding.
There’s usually a lot of drama.
There’s usually a lot of drug use as well.
And it’s not fun at all.”
The most recent bad review for Domino’s said: “Did not enjoy working here, game
days in the middle of Clemson are horrible.
Pay is terrible, management was generally unhelpful.
But hey, discounted pizza.”
So, which pizza do you prefer?
Let us know why in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called McDonalds vs Burger King!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!