At least seven Pizza Hut restaurants in southwestern Illinois have closed

At least seven Pizza Hut restaurants in southwestern Illinois have closed.

A Pizza Hut company spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment about details of the Illinois closings, including the timing.

NPC International, which is the largest franchisee of Yum Brands’ Pizza Hut restaurants with more than 1,200 locations in 27 states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, The Kansas City Star reported.

CNN reported in August that up to 300 Pizza Hut restaurants in the U.S. would be closed.

NPC said in a statement Thursday that it closed a number of locations, effective Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Pizza Hut posted on its website: “We’ve made the difficult decision, together with certain franchisees, to close a limited number of locations in the U.S.”

The status of each closed location has been updated on the Pizza Hut website.

At least seven southwestern Illinois Pizza Hut locations are closed, according to recorded phone messages and the Pizza Hut website, but it is unclear when they closed or whether the closings are connected to the bankruptcy.

Calls to Pizza Huts in Edwardsville and Highland were answered with a voice message stating, “Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. We’re sorry, but this restaurant has closed. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Other locations with the same recording include Bethalto, Centralia, Godfrey and Wood River. Calls to the Red Bud restaurant were unanswered, but it is listed as closed online.

In a response to a message from the Belleville News-Democrat, NPC International provided this statement:

“As part of our restructuring process, we made the very difficult decision to close a number of Pizza Hut restaurants. We did not take these decisions lightly, and we are committed to providing support to impacted employees. Ultimately, these actions will best position our remaining restaurant business for success. NPC continues to operate many other Pizza Hut restaurants across the country which remain open for business, supported by our 23,000 dedicated employees who are ready to serve our customers.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 4:04 PM.