PIZZA GIANT TO AXE HUNDREDS OF JOBS

Chain ‘shutting 75 restaurants’

STRUGGLING Pizza Express could shut around 75 restaurants, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk.

The high street chain, which has 470 sites in the UK and Ireland, is set to begin talks with landlords to shed hardhit locations and slash rents.

It is reportedly drawing up plans to close around 75 sites through an insolvency process called a Company Voluntary Arrangement.

The business, which was founded in 1965 and employs 8,000 people, has changed hands a number of times and was bought by Chinese current owner Hony Capital for £900million in 2014. However, it is saddled with huge debts which stood at £1.1billion at the end of 2018.

It was in negotiations over £665m of those debts last autumn. Bondholders

PIZZA Express was founded by the late Peter Boizot in 1965.

In its early days in Soho, London, it was one of the first to adopt the openkitchen design. It has grown to 627 are likely to seize control of Pizza Express’s UK arm under a restructuring of the business.

It is the latest sign of carnage in the restaurant sector, with mid-market outlets, including around 470 company-owned ones in the UK and Ireland, plus almost 150 overseas.

And it sells more than 35 million pizzas a year in UK supermarkets. chains suffering difficulties even before coronavirus hit and lockdown began. Frankie and Benny’s owner The Restaurant Group has announced 125 possible closures, threatening up to 3,000 jobs. And the owner of restaurant chain Cafe Rouge went into administration this month, triggering 1,900 job losses. Nigel Frith, a market analyst, said: “Restaurants are supposed to be coming out of lockdown and taking part in the Eat Out To Help Out scheme. “It’s a shame to still see yet another chain axing jobs.” Pizza Express did not comment.

FOUNDER Peter Boizot