Little Caesars Pizza Premieres New DEEP!DEEP! Dish Pizza

DETROIT, April 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Little Caesars Pizza, the largest carry-out pizza chain in America and home of the $5 HOT-N-READY^® pizza, is unveiling the biggest product introduction in the company's 54-year history: the new DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza. Each delicious slice of the eight-corner, large pizza features a crunchy crust with caramelized cheese edges and is topped with pepperoni and cheese. Starting April 1, the DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza will be a fixture on Little Caesars menus nationwide for only $8 plus tax. This craveable new choice gives pizza enthusiasts big flavor, while deepening the company's commitment to value, quality and convenience.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130401/DE85888)

"For more than 50 years, Little Caesars has been all about pizza," said Little Caesars Pizza President and CEO, David Scrivano. "When we set out to create a new deep dish, we wanted it to have an incredible taste, epitomize quality, and fit the tremendous value and convenience Little Caesars is known for. Whether you're a Little Caesars Pizza fanatic or trying our pizza for the first time, I think you'll be impressed by our new DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza."

Little Caesars has a long history of innovation including pioneering a two-for-one pizza deal later known as Pizza!Pizza!®, introducing the revolutionary $5 HOT-N-READY^® concept, inventing a conveyor oven specially designed to bake pizza, and creating unique products like Crazy Bread^®. This year Little Caesars is innovating again with the DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza. A nod to Little Caesars hometown, the DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza is a Detroit-style pizza -- a rectangular pizza that gets its crispy-crunchy edge and chewy inside texture from baking in a custom metal pan coated with olive oil. Styled after the assembly line trays first used to make deep dish pizza in the Motor City years ago, our modern adaptation of this pan is made in the USA exclusively for Little Caesars and is designed to deliver the same Detroit-style crunch. Little Caesars Pizza is the first national chain to introduce Detroit-style deep dish pizza to its core menu in all 50 states.

The new DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza builds on the success and legacy of the $5 HOT-N-READY^® pizza by offering a new pizza variety with the same focus on value, quality and convenience. Based on test market results, the company anticipates DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza to be the biggest new product launch (based on first week sales) in Little Caesars history.

The DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza's unforgettable taste starts with hand-made dough, baked in custom, deep dish pans that create a unique, crispy-on-the-bottom, soft-and-chewy-on-the-inside crust. Topped from coast-to-coast with fresh, premium mozzarella and Muenster, baked to a crispy, crunchy, caramelized cheese edge. Four corners of perfection weren't enough -- so DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza gives you eight! It will also be available HOT-N-READY^® from 4-8 p.m.

Joining our popular $5 original round pepperoni or cheese HOT-N-READY^® pizza, DEEP!DEEP! Dish pizza is the most recent addition to the HOT-N-READY^® lineup of products, which also includes Crazy Bread^®, Caesar Wings and other delicious selections.

About Little Caesars
Little Caesars Pizza, known for its HOT-N-READY® pizza and famed Crazy Bread®, is the largest carry-out pizza chain in America and the fastest growing pizza chain in the world*. Named "Best Value in America"** for the sixth year in a row, Little Caesars products are made with quality ingredients, like fresh, never frozen, mozzarella and Muenster cheese, dough made fresh daily in the stores and sauce made from fresh California vine ripened tomatoes.

For franchisee candidates, Little Caesars is rapidly expanding in prime markets including internationally, providing an opportunity for independence in a franchise system. In addition, Little Caesars offers strong brand awareness with one of the most recognized and appealing characters in the country, Little Caesar.

Little Caesars Pizza founders Michael and Marian Ilitch opened their first restaurant in Garden City, Michigan in 1959. In addition to Little Caesars Pizza, Michael and Marian Ilitch's companies in the food, sports and entertainment industries include: the Detroit Red Wings, Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, Champion Foods, Ilitch Holdings, Inc., Uptown Entertainment, Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program, and a variety of venues within these entities. Michael Ilitch owns the Detroit Tigers. Marian Ilitch owns MotorCity Casino Hotel.

For more information about Little Caesars, visit www.LittleCaesars.com or call 1-800-553-5776.

*Fastest growing pizza chain in the world - based on net number of stores added 2008-2012.
**"Highest-Rated Chain - Value for the Money" based on a nationwide survey of quick-service restaurant consumers conducted by Sandelman & Associates, 2007- 2012.

SOURCE Little Caesars Pizza