Peter Piper Pizza to debut new store format

Peter Piper Pizza is going off-premise.

The regional pizza chain will introduce a to-go-only concept, called Peter Piper Express, on March 1, in Phoenix, followed by two additional locations. The locations will range from 1,000 to 1,300 sq. ft.

The new concept comes after Peter Piper, which operates 120 stores in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico, saw off-premise sales skyrocket in 2021 with strong demand for its scratch-made pizza and menu items. Off-premise sales now account for more than 40% of sales at its corporate-owned full-service locations, with some locations experiencing even more. The company projects its Express locations will be 15% the size of a traditional Peter Piper restaurant, leading to lower operational costs.

Each Peter Piper Express will serve a full menu featuring its pizzas crafted from dough made fresh daily, salads, appetizers, desserts and bottled beverages. The highlight of each location is a full-size kitchen equipped with a custom Roto-Flex^® pizza oven capable of baking over 200 delicious pizzas per hour. 

"The strong demand for our scratch-made pizza and quality menu offerings makes the Peter Piper Express concept a great growth vehicle for the brand and a natural complement to our popular full-service offering," said David McKillips, CEO of Peter Piper parent CEC Entertainment. "Based on the success of these new units, we believe the concept will be attractive to our current and potential franchisees and will allow further brand penetration in existing and new markets at a substantially lower investment with a very attractive rate of returns."

The new Express concept is part of Peter Piper Pizza's larger initiative to meet changing consumer demands on several fronts. The company recently began updating its arcades with the launch of funpass, which allows patrons to purchase and reload cards directly from a kiosk to play new and classic games in Peter Piper's "Game On" arcade area. The new system eliminates the need for game tokens and paper prize tickets and has increased total arcade play time by 23%. The rollout to all locations is expected to be complete by the end of 2022. 

The company has also enhanced its website for seamless online ordering and birthday party reservations.

Peter Piper, a wholly owned subsidiary of CEC Entertainment, operates more than 120 locations in the United States and Mexico.