Employees of the restaurant located at 4388 Indian Ripple Road, in a strip retail center across from The Greene Town Center, will be offered employment at nearby Pizza Hut locations, according to Carol Magazzeni, marketing and public relations director for Stow, Ohio-based Pizza Hut franchisee Hallrich Inc.
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The store had transitioned to “carryout-only” a few months ago, Magazzeni said.
There are three Pizza Hut locations within about four miles from the store that is designated for closing, and two of those locations just opened in the fall of 2018: on North Fairfield Road across from Beaver-Vu bowling alley in Beavercreek, about four miles away; and at 900 E. Dorothy Lane in Kettering, less than three miles away.
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Calls to the Indian Ripple Road Pizza Hut will be re-directed to the Kettering store..
The new alignment “will help us better serve the area, Magazzeni said.
Hallrich has been expanding Pizza Hut’s footprint across the Dayton area in recent months. In addition to the Kettering and Beavercreek openings, it added a location in a former Family Video store late last year to serve downtown Dayton and the University of Dayton area.
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Hallrich purchased the rights to operate Pizza Hut restaurants in the greater Dayton market from the Pizza Hut corporate company in June 2017. With the addition of Montgomery, Clark, Greene, Warren, Darke, Logan and Champaign counties, Hallrich now operates about two-thirds of the Pizza Hut restaurants in Ohio, the franchisee’s spokeswoman said.
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The new Pizza Hut locations join an already competitive Dayton-area pizza market, which has long been dominated by venerable hometown chains such as Cassano’s Pizza King and Marion’s Piazza; by other national chains such as Domino’s, Little Caesar’s and Papa John’s; and by the dozens of smaller chains and single-store independents that call the Miami Valley home.
In recent years, other smaller, mostly regional chains have invaded those established market players’ turf, including LaRosa’s, Godfather’s, Dewey’s and Jet’s, among others.
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More recently, “fast-casual” pizza chains that focus on customized, fast-baked pizzas have added a new layer of competition. Kettering-based Rapid Fired Pizza has led that surge locally, and Seattle-based MOD Pizza operates two Dayton-area restaurants. A third competitor, Cleveland-based PizzaFire shut down its only Dayton-area location late last year. LaRosa’s also has closed two of its Dayton-area locations since late 2016.
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