Hell Pizza

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Hell Pizza
Type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Founded	1996 in Wellington
Headquarters	New Zealand
Industry	Fast food
Products	Pizza, Pasta, Salads
Website	hell.co.nz

Hell Pizza is a New Zealand-based pizza chain. Hell first began in New Zealand in early 1996 next to Victoria University, and since then has gained a huge following worldwide. With creative advertising, the name Hell has gained a reputation and cult following from its new New Zealand base.

Hell Pizza worldwide is owned by Warren Powell, Callum Davies and Stu McMullin. In 2006 Hell sold the New Zealand Master Franchise rights to Burger King for an undisclosed sum and set sail for foreign shores. There are currently 70 stores nationwide in New Zealand, making Hell the second largest pizza company in New Zealand. Hell opened its first UK restaurant in Fulham, London www.hellpizza.co.uk in March 2007 and will also be opening the first store in Brisbane Australia in April 2008 Australia.

Their menu is fully themed. For instance:

Seven of the pizzas are named after the seven deadly sins.
The dessert and drinks sections on their menu are named ambrosia and nectar respectively.
The stores have custom wallpaper, lava lights, flaming seats, and wicked chandaliers
The large pizza boxes have a cut-out of a coffin "for your remains."
The anti-litter message on the box says to "dispose of the evidence."
The phone number (0800 666 111 in NZ and 08456 666 999 in the UK) carries the message "go to hell (666) for an emergency (111)."

The company is notable for its humorous advertising and for being the first company in New Zealand to offer online pizza ordering in 1996. Their pizza box even also turns into a knock out coffin - for your remains. Their logo, and their pizzas, are used on the Sporting Hell segment on the television show Pulp Sport.

Gluten free bases are available on their entire range from all stores (gluten free diet).

[edit] Condom advertising

Wikinews has related news:

On 31 October 2006 Hell announced through a press release it would be promoting its "Lust" pizza by distributing 170,000 branded condoms. They said that "while the primary aim of the campaign is to promote our LUST pizza, let's not forget that promoting the use of condoms has important public benefits such as sexual education, the prevention of pregnancy and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections".^[1]

Within days, groups such as Family Life International, Focus on the Family and the Catholic Church had lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority. The Family First Lobby said Hell has "crossed the line of what is decent and acceptable advertising material to be put in letterboxes of families".^[2] In addition there were complaints that the packaging contained "explicit instructions"^[3], though these are the typical instructions that come with condoms.