Express slowdown

PIZZA Express has blamed business rates, rents and rising food prices for a fall in earnings last year.

The restaurant group’s profit dropped 8.9pc in the year to December 31, falling to £94.6m.

Sales inched up 0.4pc in the UK and Ireland, and jumped 8.2pc in the international division. Pizza Express – bought for £900m by Chinese firm Hony Capital in 2014 – has been buffeted by the same pressures affecting retailers and other restaurants.

Jinlong Wang, chairman of Pizza Express, said higher food prices and the rise in business rates and commercial rents affected growth.