"Total Demise of Pizza Hut" Predicted as Traffic Wardens Get Tough

WORTHING'S parking blitz is causing Saturday night fever among fast-food customers.
A small army of NCP parking attendants is swooping on cars parked in the town centre while drivers collected take-away meals from places such as Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

And motorists' reactions on returning to their cars were as heated as the food they had just collected.

They were "victims" of stricter enforcement of on-street, no-waiting regulations, a result of local councils taking over parking control from Sussex Police.

More traffic wardens patrolling in more places and for longer hours have been catching out many drivers who have been used to the previous, more relaxed regime.

One of the drivers experiencing the ticket blitz on Saturday, November 24 was was Keith Lockyer, of Bodmin Close, Worthing.

Mr Lockyer said: "I was in town at about 7pm to pick up my son, who was getting a takeaway.

"Parked outside Pizza Hut in my car in the bay, I was approached by a friendly warden asking me to move.

"There were three or four vehicles behind me, all waiting for Pizza Hut take-aways or Kentucky.
"If you were not in your vehicle, you got a ticket.

"I moved around the corner by H. Samuel, where I thought I could park among eight or nine vehicles causing no obstruction, but I was then told by a motorist that he got a ticket there last week!

"By now, there were 20-plus cars going round in circles waiting to pick people up.

"I then saw six wardens, plus their minder on a walkie-talkie, all descend at the same time on parked vehicles, and book them.

"If this is allowed to continue, you will see the total demise of Pizza Hut, Kentucky, possibly Iceland, and the shops that depend so much on take-away food.

"I know why it is happening and it's all about taking money from the motorist again.

"This is persecution at the extreme, as not one vehicle was in any way causing an obstruction.

"We will now not use these stores again, as there is no place elsewhere to park."

Mandy Ainsworth, Worthing Borough Council's on-street parking services manager, said: "The traffic regulations order where he was parked said 'no waiting at any time', and that continued round past H. Samuel as well.

"We would allow for five minutes to load and unload at that time of night, that would be permitted, but those drivers who do not stay with their vehicles are contravening the regulations."

With thanks to The Worthing Herald for bringing this story to us


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Lincoln Papa John's is Cooking on Gas!

Thanks to our reader Toni who sent in news of an amazing feat by those guys from Papa's. They really turned on the heat.

A champion pizza-making quartet proved they can make the Italian treat at breakneck speed at this year's Pizza Olympics.
It was literally a case of fast food for the dream team from Papa John's pizza parlour in High Street, Lincoln, when they made and cooked 11 top quality 14in pizzas in less than 20 minutes. (Yes you did read that correctly) Their culinary finesse saw off competition from 44 other Papa John's pizza outlets in the north of the country and secured them a gold medal in the regional heats.
Owner of the Lincoln franchise and chef, Ranjit Johal (46) said he was proud of his team."We have some great pizza makers here," said Mr Johal."It was a real life situation as we made a variety of pizzas such as ham and pineapple and chicken barbecue so it wasn't too different from a busy Friday or Saturday night."The team - made up of Mr Johal, Miss Wass and fellow workers Cat Webb (21) and Anthony Neal (28) - travelled to Windsor for the national finals but were narrowly pipped to the post by a team from Taunton. Although the Somerset team made the same number of pizzas, a rigorous judging procedure - taking into account the evenness of the dough and spread of toppings - saw the Lincoln chefs walk away with a silver medal.

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Special Olympics GB - The Reason Behind this Blog

Founded in 1978, Special Olympics Great Britain is a registered charity and the country’s major provider of sporting opportunities for people with a learning disability. There are 135 branches in the Special Olympics Great Britain network with over 450 volunteer coaches in sports ranging from athletics, swimming, football, gymnastics, judo, bowls, basketball and cycling.

The mission statement of Special Olympics Great Britain is “to provide year-round sports training and competition in a variety of Olympic type sports for people eight years of age and older with a learning disability, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate achievement, experience enjoyment and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community."

The Great Britain team that went to the Special Olympics World Games in 2007 had 155 athletes competing in 17 sports. Around £2,000 is required for each attending athlete’s expenses.

Lawrie McMenemy MBE, Chairman of Special Olympics Great Britain said "We are delighted to be joining forces with Domino's Pizza in what I am sure will be an unprecedented campaign to spread the word of our truly unique organization. There are over 1.2 million people with learning disabilities in Great Britain and a further 200 learning disabled babies are born each week- we want each and every one of them to know that there is a free programme they can turn to that will dramatically improve their quality of life."

For more information, visit http://www.specialolympicsgb.org/

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Another Funky Japanese Pizza Commercial

Nuff Said!


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Pizza Hut/KFC Sells Up in Japan

Trading house Mitsubishi Corp. said Saturday that it successfully completed a friendly takeover of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan Ltd., which owns more than 1,500 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants around the country.

Mitsubishi, which already owned 31 percent of KFC Japan's shares, will pay ¥1,947 each for a further 7.62 million shares, the bulk of which are held by U.S.-based Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporate Holdings Ltd., it said in a statement.

The Tokyo-based trading company will hold nearly 65 percent of KFC Japan's voting shares as a result of the ¥14.83 billion transaction.

KFC Japan's board voted in favor of the tender offer, which was launched at the end of October and ran through Friday.

Mitsubishi said it plans to make the restaurant operator one of its subsidiaries.

Profit growth at KFC Japan has been sluggish because of intense competition in Japan's fast food market, rising material prices and hefty investments in systems operations.

In the year that ended Nov. 30, 2006, the company reported a net profit of ¥1.21 billion, up 8.9 percent from a year ago.

Tokyo-based KFC Japan operates 1,163 KFC restaurants and 357 Pizza Hut outlets across Japan. It employs about 1,100 people.

KFC Japan shares rose 2.08 percent Friday to finish at ¥1,960 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.


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Domino's Pizza Eyes Singapore Openings

We like to bring you stories of different pizza markets around the World and we dug this one out from the Malaysian Star.

"Dommal Food Services , the master franchise holder for Domino’s Pizza in Malaysia and Singapore, wants to open its pizza outlets in the republic.

Its operations manager Derick de Souza said although the company did not set any time frame to do so, it was hoping to have outlets there “the sooner the better”.

He said that years ago, there were a few Domino’s Pizza outlets in the republic managed by a Singapore-based master franchise holder but they were later closed down.

“Singapore is a good market for any fast-food operator due to a large number of tourists and its cosmopolitan city status,” he said.

Derick de Souza De Souza was speaking to StarBiz after the launch of “Deliciously Confidential” – three new promotional toppings of beef suspense, classified chicken and secret salmon.
He said the Singapore tourism industry was expected to grow further with the completion of two integrated resort (IR) projects in two years.

Consumers in Singapore were more exposed to international cuisine, as there were many international food and beverage operators there, he said.

De Souza said on average, Dommal ran each promotion campaign for 10 weeks as part of a strategy to make consumers more “excited to try something new”.
He said the company made one million pieces of pizzas yearly, with aloha chicken topping the best sellers' list followed by beef pepperoni and chicken pepperoni.

De Souza also said Dommal was looking to have more outlets in southern Johor, which would be developed into a global metropolis under the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) project.
“The tourism industry in the IDR is expected to develop with more international investors coming in and the spill over from the two IR projects,” he said.

He said the company would continue to focus on the delivery segment in its expansion programme, as most consumers liked having their pizzas delivered.

Currently, there are 32 Domino’s Pizza outlets – 26 in the Klang Valley, three in Johor Baru, two in Penang and one in Seremban.

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Tunisia - Home of the Conical Pizza

Here's another entry in our Pizzas Around the World Series. Many thanks to the guys at Subzero Blue for bringing us this one.

"I think if there's any country in the world that could compete with Italy itself in the number of pizza places and pizza consumption, it'd definitely be Tunisia; there are at least two or three pizza places in every street or corner of every city.

So why am I writing about yet another one? Well, because this ones sell pizza that's not quite like the pizza we're used to finding everywhere.
Pizza Cono, like its name actually suggests, sells pizza in the form of cones. It is pizza dough shaped into the form of an ice cream cone, and filled with your favorite combination of cheese, sauce and toppings.

I was hesitant at first to go and check it out, I was expecting something that looked interesting but wasn't so good to really eat. But one day recently, we found ourselves in the area, hungry and feeling like trying something different, so why not. It turned out pretty good in fact, quite practical when you need to grab something to eat on the go. I imagine a really good option for people working in the area.

I still prefer regular pizza; one of the joys of eating pizza to me, other than its delicious taste, is its form and the way I get to hold a good old slice of pizza in my hand and eat away at it.

Anyway, it was nice to try out, and if you're in the area, check it out, if only for the sake of trying something new and different.

Oh and the whereabout of this place: It's in the Les Berges du Lac area, behind the Mosque.

Update 2 days later: Found on Flickr - it seems they do these in South Korea too

And in Japan!

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