B U F F A L O N E W S
Western New York will have to make do with a smaller pizza population, at least for now.
Seven troubled Pizza Huts closed their doors Thursday after experiencing years of financial difficulty, a company executive said.
“These have been chronic losers, some of them for over 20 years,” said Walt Ruta, director of operations for Hospitality West LLC, which owns all seven of the shuttered restaurants, as well as 24 other Pizza Huts.
Each restaurant employed 15 to 20 people, all of whom will be offered employment elsewhere in the company.
The closings occurred at locations in Grand Island, East Aurora and on North Bailey Avenue in Amherst. Stores in Alden, Albion, Medina and Olean closed as well.
Complete addresses for each can be found at www.Buffalo-News.com .
As the leases began running out on each of the properties, the company decided not to renew them. The company will focus instead on refurbishing current locations and opening new ones in other places.
The new restaurants will be patterned after the company’s “Wing Street” concept, which is based in chicken wing delivery. Several current Pizza Hut locations will also be upgraded under the Wing Street model.
The Wing Street concept is already faring better than the Pizza Hut Italian Bistro, an upscale casual dining concept unveiled in Depew a few years ago.
For the last three years, Pizza Hut’s Wing Street sauces have brought top prizes at the annual Buffalo Chicken Wing Fest held at Dunn Tire Park.
Wing Streets has already debuted in Hamburg and Depew, and Ruta said they have been “received very well.”