Pizza Express to shut founding branch as 73 sites close
Pizza Express is to close 73 restaurants including its first ever branch after creditors approved a restructuring plan to save the 55-year-old chain.
The casualties will include the first Pizza Express restaurant, which opened in London's Wardour Street in 1965. Other branches to shut include Aberdeen and two branches in Bristol as part of a plan that spans the UK.
Pizza Express said creditors' approval of its company voluntary arrangement would help preserve 9,000 jobs in the UK. The rescue deal includes reducing debt to £319m from £735m and the potential transfer of control to bondholders in exchange for equity.
The company has also put itself up for sale but if the price is not right noteholders will buy the business from Hony Capital, the chain's majority shareholder. A number of existing creditors have committed up to £144m to support restaurant reopenings and refinance debt.
Pizza Express was already struggling along with many other casual dining chains before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the sector. The sector expanded rapidly as the economy recovered from the financial crisis, leaving a glut of eateries.
Founded in the year the Beatles released their Help! LP, the chain grew under various owners to become a budget favourite for UK families. Prince Andrew used an evening out at the branch in Woking, Surrey, as an alibi for a night when he was accused of revelling at the Tramp nightclub in a contested incident related to his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Pizza Express has 355 branches open in the UK with more than 30 more venues scheduled to reopen in the next few weeks. It also has 150 sites outside the UK.