Firm to shut eight Yorkshire pizzerias
EIGHT Pizza Express restaurants in Yorkshire are to close their doors after the company announced plans to permanently close 73 across the country.
The restaurant chain announced the plans as part of a major restructuring of its business that will impact on around 1,100 jobs.
Included in the closure list are eight Yorkshire restaurants in Leeds, Sheffield, Scarborough, Halifax and Wakefield.
Although the majority of restaurants were profitable before lockdown was imposed, bosses claim earnings have been declining across the estate for the last three years.
In Yorkshire, Leeds and Sheffield will lose two pizzerias each. In Leeds, the branches in Crown Street and Horsforth will close, and in Sheffield it will lose the Devonshire Street restaurant and the site at The Moor.
Pizza Express UK and Ireland managing director Zoe Bowley said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic led to some “incredibly tough decisions to safeguard Pizza Express for the long term”.
She added: “Today, we have confirmed that 73 of our pizzerias are proposed to close permanently.
“In most cases, there is another Pizza Express nearby, either already open or reopening soon, to welcome our customers. Our focus is on our people whose jobs are impacted and we will be doing everything we can either to redeploy them or to support them in finding roles elsewhere.
“Hard as this process is, it will protect the jobs of over 9,000 of our colleagues and provide a strong footing for Pizza Express to meet future challenges and opportunities.”