Pizza Express restaurants in Southport and Formby are among those being closed, the company has announced today.
The firm is shutting a total of 73 of its restaurants across the UK with the potential to cut 1,100 jobs in a bid to stay afloat in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Southport store is based in the Old Bank on Lord Street while Formby’s eatery is on Chapel Lane in Formby.
While the cl;osures are sad news for staff, pizza lovers in both Southport and Formby both have a great choice of local, independent restaurants serving pizza nearby such as: Trattoria 51 (Promenade), Pizzeria Mamma Mia (Lord Street), Roberto’s (Ocean Plaza) and Volare (Lord Street) in Southport and in Don Luigi, (Church Road) and Sorrento (Three Tuns Lane) in Formby.
Pizza Express, which currently has around 454 restaurants in the UK, confirmedit has finalised a proposal to reduce its restaurant and rental costs via a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).
It said that although the majority of its restaurants were profitable before lockdown was imposed, earnings had been declining across the Pizza Express estate for the last three years.
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It also said most of the pizzerias set to close were near other stores already open or slated to soon open, although this is not the case in Southport.
The chain added that the reduction in revenue caused by the enforced closure of all restaurants, the cost of reopening and the UK’s uncertain economic future meant its rental costs were no longer sustainable.
Pizza Express, which is majority owned by Chinese firm Hony Capital, also confirmed it had hired advisers from Lazard to lead a sale process for the business.
It said it would hold a virtual meeting for its creditors on September 4 to seek approval for the measures set out in the CVA.
Zoe Bowley, Pizza Express’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, said “Unfortunately, the impact of the global pandemic has meant that we have had to make some incredibly tough decisions to safeguard Pizza Express for the long term.
“Today we have confirmed that 73 of our pizzerias are proposed to close permanently.
Ms Bowley said that in most cases, the stores selected for closure are near to another Pizza Express that has already reopened or will be reopening soon.
She added: “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.”
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