Pizza Hut’s New Big Foot to Create 2,000 New Jobs

Pepsico’s Pizza Hut unit said Monday that it will create 2,000 new jobs in the next month at 280 existing locations in the Los Angeles area through the nationwide release of its new value-priced pizza next week.

Pizza Hut’s new Big Foot--a 21-slice, 2-by-1-foot pizza priced between $9 and $11--is already heating up the battle for larger, more affordable pizzas, a concept introduced by Little Caesar’s two-for-one pizza. Domino’s Pizza is expected to announce today that it will release The Dominator, an even bigger pizza, sometime in May.

The Pizza Hut job openings, amounting to about eight positions per location, are permanent, full-time or part-time positions in a variety of jobs.

“Based on our test marketing of Big Foot, we have seen a huge demand for the product,” said David F. Bradley, Pizza Hut’s Los Angeles marketing director. “In order to meet the demand, we have had to bring in additional people.”

Domino’s new Dominator, a 30-slice carry-out pizza, is also expected to create a “considerable” number of new positions at franchise locations in the Los Angeles area, said Larry Sheehan, Domino’s vice president of marketing and product development.

Pizza Hut and Domino’s are neck-and-neck in the battle for market share in the Los Angeles pizza delivery market, which accounts for annual revenue of $235 million.

Together the two make up 72% of the market.

Round Table, Pizza Man and other small delivery chains share the rest of the market.