Pizza Express closes 73 outlets with 1, 100 job losses

Pizza Express chain owned by Chinese firm Hony Capital is to close 73 of its UK restaurants with the potential loss of 1, 100 jobs in a deal to reduce rent costs.

Zoe Bowley, Pizza Express’s managing director for the UK and Ireland said: “Unfortunately, the impact of the global pandemic has meant that we have had to make some incredibly tough decisions to safeguard Pizza Express for the long term.”

She stressed this move will protect the jobs of over 9, 000 of our colleagues.

Pizza Express funder the late Peter Boizot brought a pizza oven from Napoli in 1965 and chef from Sicily to open his first restaurant in London’s Soho.

Mr. Boizot grew his empire over the following almost three decades before selling it for £1.5m to Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson, the man who was until recently the chairman of Patisserie Valerie. They floated it on the stock market the next year and ultimately sold out in 1997 when it was worth £150m. In 2003 two private equity firms who took it to private again in a £278m deal who then floated two years later, although it lasted less than a year on the public markets before it was returned to private equity hands.  In 2014, it changed hands again, acquired by Chinese private equity house Hony Capital for £900m. Pizza Express has more than 600 restaurants globally, 454 in the UK, including five franchises, 19 in Ireland, 24 in Hong Kong, 6 in Singapore, 14 in UAE, 60 in China, and 49 other international sites operated by franchisees.

The outlets to close are:

Aberdeen, Belmont St

Aylesbury

Barnstaple, Three Tuns

Biggleswade

Billericay

Birmingham, Corporation St

Birmingham, Mailbox

Bournemouth, Post Office Road

Bramhall

Bristol, Berkeley Square

Bristol, Regent Street

Bromsgrove

Bruton Place, London

Charlotte Street, London

Chippenham

Dalton Park

Darlington

Dudley, Merry Hill

Earls Court, Earls Court Road, London

Edinburgh, Holyrood

Formby

Fulham Palace Road, London

Glasgow, Princes Square

Glossop

Gosforth

Grantham

Halifax

Hampstead, London

Hatch End

Hereford

Heswall

Ipswich, Lloyds Avenue

Leeds, Crown Street

Leeds, Horsforth

Ludlow

Lymington

Melton Mowbray

Midhurst

Milton Keynes, Hub

Moseley

New Brighton

Newcastle

Newport, Isle of Wight

Newport, South Wales

Northallerton

Nottingham, Goosegate

O2 Finchley, London

Orpington

Oxford, Oxford Castle

Poole

Port Solent

Ramsgate

Reading, St Mary’s Butts

Scarborough

Sheffield, Devonshire Street

Sheffield, The Moor

Shirley

Southport, Old Bank

Stafford

Staines

Stoke

Stourbridge

Sudbury

Torquay

Uxbridge

Wakefield

Walsall

Wapping

Wardour Street, London

Weston-super-Mare

Whiteley Village

Whitstable

Wrexham