Pizza Hut Shuts Hundreds of Locations in UK and US Turnaround Push

Pizza Hut is shrinking its footprint on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, dozens of dine-in restaurants have already closed and more than a thousand jobs were lost. In the US, the chain is planning to close around 250 locations in the first half of 2026. Same brand, same parent company—Yum! Brands—but a clear signal that the old playbook of “a Pizza Hut everywhere” is over.

In Britain, the blow landed in October 2025. The UK franchisee, DC London Pie Limited, had run into serious financial trouble, including an unpaid tax bill to HMRC. It went into administration. The Guardian and ITV reported that 68 dine-in Pizza Huts and 11 delivery-only sites were shut, wiping out about 1,210 jobs. What made it sting more was the timing: the franchisee had bought the business from the previous operator less than nine months earlier. It wasn’t a slow decline; it was a fast unravel.

Yum! Brands didn’t walk away. Through a pre-pack administration deal, it took over the remaining UK operation. That move saved 64 dine-in sites and 1,277 jobs, according to Finance Monthly and The Guardian. So the brand stays in Britain, but with a smaller, leaner estate.

What’s Happening in the United States

Stateside, the story is different but the theme is the same: trim the weak spots. In February 2026, Yum! said roughly 250 US Pizza Hut locations would close in the first half of the year. The company is calling it a “strategic turnaround”—closing underperforming stores, investing in marketing, and modernizing the ones that stay. Today.com and Pizza Hut’s own communications note that the chain still has more than 6,700 locations in the US; 250 is a small share of a network that spans about 20,000 stores globally. So this isn’t a collapse. It’s a targeted cut.

Pizza Hut has been shifting toward delivery and carryout for years. Buffet-style dine-in and big red roofs were built for another era. Now the company is betting on fewer, better-placed restaurants and a stronger digital and delivery experience. The closures are the visible part of that shift.

Why So Many Closures at Once?

In the UK, the trigger was straightforward: the franchisee couldn’t pay its bills. In the US, it’s a mix. Some locations were never going to bounce back from changing traffic patterns or rising rents. Others are in markets where one or two stores can cover a wider area with delivery. Closing them frees capital and management attention for the rest of the system.

Consumers might not notice much. If their local Pizza Hut is one of the 250, they’ll have to order from the next one over or from another chain. For employees at those stores, the impact is real: jobs are lost, and those workers have to look elsewhere in a sector that’s already seen a lot of churn.

What Comes Next

Yum! will keep pruning where it has to and investing where it sees growth. Pizza Hut’s US and international teams will keep pushing delivery, app orders, and product tweaks. The goal is a smaller, more profitable footprint, not a nostalgic revival of the old dine-in model. So more closures in weaker markets are possible, while stronger markets may see remodels or new formats. For now, the headline is simple: hundreds of Pizza Hut locations are going away so the rest of the chain can focus on the stores that still make sense.