Pizza Co

Pizza Co. was a restaurant company that had over 20 locations. It was owned by Pizza Co Holdings.

In May 2019, it was sold to Yum! Brands, and some locations were converted into Pizza Hut, while the rest were closed.

History
In 1979, Distance Foods Corp of Richardstown, NC announced to open up 14 franchised Pizza Hut locations with an agreement with PepsiCo, but it was later been discovered that there was a unaffiliated restaurant that went under the name Pizza Hut, so Distance Foods Corp announced that the 14 new locations will go under the name Pizza Co., PepsiCo owned the partnership until 1981 when the unaffiliated restaurant changed its name to Pizza District after a court battle between the unaffiliated restaurant and PepsiCo. Pepsi recommended that Distance Foods Corp needs to make a new logo for Pizza Co. But Distance Foods Corp declined the recommendation. Pizza Hut finally expanded into the Richardstown area shortly after.

In 1982, Distance Foods Corp sold Taco Express to PepsiCo, but retained Pizza Co.

In 1994, Distance Foods Corp was purchased by CP Capital, and as a result, Distance Foods Corp sold off Pizza Co. to Pizza Co Holdings, an affiliate of District Capital Management.

By that time, Pizza Co. had 120 locations.

In 2001, Pizza Co. was sued by Tricon Global Restaurants for trademark infringement and unfair competition because of Pizza Co's logo looks similar to Pizza Hut's logo at that time.

As a result of a lawsuit by Pizza Hut's parent company, Pizza Co. introduced a pizza pie part logo. The lawsuit was settled in December 2002.

In 2004, it acquired several Red Roof locations from Pizza Hut, reformatting them into new Pizza Co locations

In 2009 it acquired District Pizza, resulting in a few locations becoming Pizza Co. Fun Zone, which was later sold off in 2013.

Pizza Co Holdings, had acquired a former Kmart distribution center in CityPoint, North Carolina in 2002, to make it their new second headquarters location, the first headquarters location was closed down.

Pizza Co Holdings decided to start closing restaurants shortly after, One notable closure was at the third location, which was originally opened up in 1979 by Distance Foods Corp and later changed ownership a few times.

In 2019, Pizza Co Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and started closing more locations.

On May 20, 2019, Yum! Brands purchased Pizza Co. from Pizza Co Holdings which was operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Some Pizza Co's locations were converted into Pizza Hut, while the rest were closed and sold to third party companies.

In June 2019, Pizza Co Holdings emerged from bankruptcy under the new name Corp Brands. Corp Brands now owns Supper Sweets, Hendrick Restaurants, and Opry Cola.