Pizza Hut beer delivery likely to cause ‘backlash’
Pizza Hut would get a sales boost – but a public-relations headache – if it decided to follow an international example and offer pizza-and-beer delivery.
The chain is offering beer delivery alongside pizzas at 100 United States stores in California and Arizona, and plans to expand the option to more locations this year.
‘‘Here’s our opportunity to get reengaged at a college level,’’ the company’s US chief brand officer, Marianne Radley, said this week.
‘‘At the legal drinking age,’’ pizza and beer were a natural fit and testing had gone well, Radley said.
A spokeswoman for Restaurant Brands, which operates Pizza Hut in New Zealand, said it did not have any similar plans.
Marketing expert Mike Lee, from the University of Auckland business school, said such an offer would give Pizza Hut a boost in sales if it were tried here.
‘‘However, there would probably also be a backlash in terms of making alcohol even more convenient, particularly if targeting young adults, as the company appears to be,’’ he said.
‘‘The company would argue that it is merely offering more convenience for its customers, as beer and pizza do go together for some people, and that the most responsible way of drinking alcohol is with food and in good company.
‘‘On the other hand, [organisations] working against the drinking culture in New Zealand would argue that this is merely a marketing tactic . . . which is also correct.’’
Alcohol delivery is not a foreign concept in New Zealand.
Bevee, Brewbound and My Beer Case are some of the brands offering alcohol at liquor-store pricing to Kiwis, with short turnaround times for delivery.
In many cases, the delivery happens in less than an hour.
The companies must have an offlicence, and are regulated in the same way as standard liquor stores.
They cannot deliver between 11pm and 6am and they must meet obligations not to sell to minors or people who are intoxicated.