Pizza Hut to close 250 'underperforming' stores across U.S.

Pizza Hut plans to close roughly 250 stores across the United States in the first half of 2026, executives announced on an earnings call on Wednesday.

Pizza Hut has at least eight stores on Long Island, according to the company’s website, including in Westbury, Patchogue and Brentwood.

The company has not announced which stores would close as it targets "underperforming" locations across the country, Ranjith Roy, chief financial officer of Pizza Hut’s parent company, Yum Brands, said in a company earnings call on Wednesday.

In the United States, Pizza Hut’s same-store sales declined by 3% in the fourth quarter of last year, and by 5% for the entire year, according to an earnings release from Yum Brands.

Roy emphasized that the 250 store closures represent "a very small portion of the 20,000-unit estate that Pizza Hut has globally," he said on the Wednesday earnings call.

"Looking back at 2025, Pizza Hut saw a 1% same-store sales decline globally for the quarter and the year," Roy said during the call. "In 2026, we are focused on raising the bar across all our businesses and completing the review of Pizza Hut strategic options."

Yum Brands, which also owns KFC and Taco Bell, did not immediately respond to Newsday’s request for comment.

The Pizza Hut closures come after Yum Brands announced in November that it would conduct a "review of strategic options" for the brand and its 6,500 U.S. stores, which had struggled to compete against other pizza sellers, The Associated Press reported.

Founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by two brothers, Pizza Hut became the top pizza chain in the world by 1971. PepsiCo acquired the company in 1977 and spun off its restaurant division in 1997 into Yum Brands, the AP reported.