Pizza Express to cut a further 1,300 jobs blaming impact of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions on trade

Pizza Express has announced it is cutting around 1,300 jobs across its UK restaurants after trading worsened due to tightened Covid-19 restrictions.

The chain will cut roles from its 370 UK restaurants through both compulsory and voluntary redundancies. It comes on top of 1,100 jobs that were announced as at risk in August.The company said the decision will help it manage the challenges this winter and beyond as it expects footfall to remain lower than usual.

PizzaExpress managing director Zoe Bowley said: "Our aim throughout these extremely challenging times has been to keep our team members and customers safe, and to retain jobs for as long as possible.

"As a leading employer in our sector, we see every day how this pandemic is having a profound impact on our industry, our business and on people's lives.

"Unfortunately, the recent increase in Covid-19 cases is again causing footfall to decline across the UK. As this is expected to continue for some months, we sadly need to make changes that will impact more of our team members.

"Our people remain at the heart of our business and we are doing what we can to support those who are affected.

"We believe that this difficult decision will give us more resilience through the next six months and help us to continue serving our customers in our restaurants and at home in the years ahead."