Yum Brands, the owner of Pizza Hut International, has caused a stir in the local vendor community by revoking the rights to open Pizza Hut franchises in Pakistan. It has been revealed that Pizza Hut owes local vendors around Rs 3 billion including, salaries & banks, according to othernews.pk.
Pizza Hut was once considered the face of pizza in Pakistan and the first international food chain to arrive in the country. Pizza Hut was run by MCR which was owned by Habib Oil Mills. However, the Pizza Hut’s reputation declined throughout the years, and it lost market share to Domino’s.
Last year, Habib Oil Mills, the previous owners sold MCR to Maak International in September, an Islamabad-based business group that operates in the rice, petroleum, hospitality, and pharmaceutical sectors. After this the branches of Pizza Hut across Pakistan were closed in October 2022.
While the new owners intended to continue the Pizza Hut brand, it was later reported by a supplier that Yum Brands, the parent organization of Pizza Hut International had revoked all rights to open Pizza Hut franchises in Pakistan. This was revealed by one of the worried supplier had contacted Ewan, Managing Director Yum Brands.
Local vendors, now, do not know who to contact regarding their outstanding debts. A vendor who supplied chicken to Pizza Hut under said that the company owes him Rs 40 million. Another vendor who made delivery boxes for Pizza Hut, said the company owes him Rs 20 million while the company that supplied iceberg lettuce to Pizza Hut also remains unpaid.
Well placed sources at MCR while talking to othernews.pk had confirmed that the company had outstanding dues. He said that this is now upon the new company that acquired Pizza Hut to clear the due. “The company was bought along with remaining liabilities”, he said. He said that the new company, Maak, which bought Pizza Hut is taking time to transfer funds from abroad which is lingering the process. He said that even MCR did not receive the amount at which they sold Pizza Hut.
All this boils down to the company Maak. othernews.pk had tried contacting focal people of Maak but no one could be found in this regard. However one of the sources had provided their stance on the matter taken by Abb Tak news in the following audio recording.
This story is on going.
