Hunt Brothers Pizza, the largest branded pizza program in the convenience store industry with more than 11,000 locations, is rolling out a limited-time Hot Honey Ultimate Pepperoni Pizza in partnership with Mike's Hot Honey, available now at participating stores across 16 states.
The LTO builds on the chain's signature pepperoni platform by loading 50% more pepperoni on a 100% natural part-skim mozzarella base, finishing with the brand's proprietary Just Rite Spice™ blend, then drizzling Mike's Hot Honey after baking. That post-bake application is a deliberate technique — it preserves the honey's distinct sweet-heat character without cooking off its flavor.
The Store Footprint
Participating Hunt Brothers locations span Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. Availability varies by location while supplies last, a standard carve-out for a program running through independent c-store operators rather than company-owned forecourts.
Hunt Brothers operates as a turn-key foodservice program — no franchise fees, royalty payments, or marketing assessments — which makes LTO execution dependent on individual store partners opting in. The 16-state footprint reflects where the brand's operator network is densest, concentrated in the South and Midwest where Hunt Brothers built its base over 35 years.
Why Hot Honey, Why Now
Hot honey has graduated from chef novelty to mainstream condiment category. Mike's Hot Honey, the Brooklyn-born brand that pioneered the segment, has achieved broad retail and foodservice distribution, making it a low-explanation sell to c-store customers who already know the product from grocery and pizza chain exposure.
Robinson Hunt of Hunt Brothers Pizza framed the collaboration around two operator-facing priorities: trial and traffic. "Mike's Hot Honey has become one of the most recognizable flavor brands in the industry," Hunt said, noting that the pairing lets store partners "drive traffic and sales" rather than simply adding a menu line.
For c-store operators, branded flavor collaborations on back-of-house foodservice programs carry meaningful upside. A recognizable co-brand on the roller grill or pizza warmer can convert a casual browser into a foodservice buyer — a transaction that typically delivers significantly higher inside-sales margin than a packaged-goods grab. NACS data consistently shows foodservice as the highest-margin category in the c-store merchandise mix, and LTO strategy is a proven traffic lever for operators looking to differentiate against QSR drive-throughs.
Hunt Brothers' non-franchise model means the company absorbs brand-building costs that would otherwise flow to royalties, giving individual store partners a lower barrier to participate in promotional programs like this one. For single-store operators and small chains in the brand's rural and suburban strongholds, that structure makes LTO participation more financially straightforward than licensing a competing program.
The Hot Honey Ultimate Pepperoni Pizza is available while supplies last.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
