Dive Brief:

• Blaze Pizza launched five new pizzas on Wednesday in what it dubbed the “Chef Inspired & Fast Fire’d Signature Collection,” as the opening salvo in a year-long menu change, according to a press release emailed to Restaurant Dive.
• The Chef Inspired pizzas replace Blaze’s previous Signature collection, which had remained unchanged since debuting in 2012. 
• Blaze said the menu overhaul will improve its value proposition and eventually impact its entire menu, including salads, desserts, folded pizza, toppings and drizzles, Blaze CMO Christian Kuhn wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.

Dive Insight:

The old signature collection accounted for a paltry 7% of the company’s sales mix by the end of its life cycle. The price of signature pizzas had also come uncoupled from the price of build-your-own pizzas, Kuhn said, which led to customer confusion over the price of multi-topping pizzas and the addition of toppings to signature pizzas. Customers who may be disappointed with the new signature pizzas can still recreate their old favorites, as the company’s choices of toppings remains the same.

“Now, we’re back to one price for both our Chef Inspired & Fast Fire’d Signature Collection, and Build-Your-Own Pizzas,” Kuhn said, adding that “BYO prices have slightly risen in general.” The price increase varies around the country depending on economic factors, he said. 

Kuhn emphasized that the new pizzas have large amounts of toppings on them, improving the value proposition for consumers, citing the Carnivore as a specific example.

“Our previous Meat Eater was topped with pepperoni and crumbled meatballs. Our new Carnivore offers 2x the amount of pepperoni and 50% more meatballs vs. the Meat Eater, and adds ham to the mix,” Kuhn said.

The pizza chain tested the new pizzas at a number of company-operated stores in California, and said the pizzas sold extremely well, with sales relatively even across the pizzas. The changes to the rest of Blaze’s menu are due to debut over the rest of the year. Fast casual pizza rival &Pizza is also looking to overhaul its menu after several years of stasis, bringing back popular menu items rather than developing a new menu wholesale.