Cottage Inn Pizza looks to win slice of market

US newcomer plans to take on established heavyweights

Pizza Hut and Papa John's may be the pizza pioneers in China, but another US company is looking to take a more gourmet approach to win a big slice of the Chinese mainland market.

Cottage Inn Pizza, founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1948, said it plans to expand internationally by adding many new locations in China, where it already has an outlet in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province.