This report provides the reader with statistics and insights about the pizza restaurant category that can help a market player do the following: stave off competition from other foodservice segments; retain core customers, increase frequency of use, attract new customers; make product development decisions; and create meaningful marketing messages and dynamic promotional campaigns.

The industry faces an uncertain future. In addition to slowing sales, national chains face rising fuel and cheese prices, increased competition, and a slow response to public health concerns.

Specific issues and questions addressed in the report include:

Which pizza chains are growing and why?

How have cheese prices affected sales?

Which chains carries momentum in terms of unit growth or sales per unit?

How well are pizza operators positioned to face an economic downturn?

How can the segment connect to the Hispanic consumer?

How can pizza marketers respond to growing debate on healthy foods?

How can chains learn from experimentation-minded independents?

This report is the result of synthesizing multiple resources including sales data, consumer data gleaned from an exclusive Mintel study, a sampling of recent television spots from the biggest chains and trend sales data representative of the top 16 chains and supporting independents.

This report examines commercial dining at pizza restaurants in the U.S., including full-service, quick-service, and delivery/carryout chain restaurants. Tabulated market size estimates include the top 16 chains by 2006 sales (although the report addresses the wider pizza restaurant market throughout the report). The report excludes foodservice, institutional and frozen/RTE sales of pizza through supermarkets and other retail channels. Unless specified otherwise, all sales figures are for system-wide sales (all food sales from all outlets, whether these are franchised or company outlets, and excluding all other revenues that are not from foodservice).