Pizza Express to close 73 restaurants and cull 1,100 jobs

Pizza Express explained: "The unavoidable reduction in revenue as a result of the lockdown, combined with higher costs associated with reopening restaurants and uncertainty about the shape of the UK economy’s recovery, mean that the Group’s rental cost base is no longer sustainable."

Zoe Bowley, managing director, continued: “Unfortunately, the impact of the global pandemic has meant that we have had to make some incredibly tough decisions to safeguard PizzaExpress for the long term. Today we have confirmed that 73 of our pizzerias are proposed to close permanently. In most cases, there is another PizzaExpress 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 PizzaExpress to meet future challenges and opportunities.”

Melanie Leech, chief executive at British Property Federation, added: “These situations are never easy, particularly now for the retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on our high streets at the sharp end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Property owners, however, need to take into consideration the impact on their investors, including the millions of people whose savings and pensions are invested in commercial property, as they vote on any CVA proposal.

“PizzaExpress and Deloitte engaged with the BPF before launching this CVA proposal. This has provided us an opportunity to improve understanding of property owners’ interests and concerns, but ultimately it will be for individual property owners to decide how they will vote on the CVA.”

Pizza Express also put itself up for sale at the start of the month and has hired investment Lazard to find a buyer. The company did not say if it had received any offers.