Find out if your local Pizza Express restaurant is closing - This is Money

Ailing Pizza Express has confirmed it plans to permanently shut 73 of its restaurants, putting 1,100 jobs at risk.

The closures span Aberdeen to Torquay, including its original site in Wardour Street in Soho, London, which opened in 1965.

Other sites across major cities including Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh are also set to stay closed for good. 

Pizza Express has had plans to shut 73 restaurants approved by creditors (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Gone: The Pizza Express branch on Lloyds Avenue in Ipswitch is staying closed for good

Closed: Pizza Express has permanently shut its restaurant in Sudbury, it announced today

The company has said it will try to look for redeployment opportunities for staff affected by the closures. 

Pizza Express' branch in Woking, Surrey, is not on the list of the 73 restaurants due to close. The Woking branch was mentioned by Prince Andrew during his televised interview with the BBC's Emily Maitlis last year. 

It is the latest in a raft of casual dining chains, including Zizzi-owner Azzurri Group, Byron Burger, and Frankie & Benny’s owner The Restaurant Group, to shut sites after being hit by lockdown. 

Pizza Express has 355 restaurants open across Britain, and over 30 more restaurants and music venues are scheduled to reopen in the coming weeks. 

Locations of the 73 Pizza Express restaurants closing

Aberdeen – Belmont St
Aylesbury
Barnstaple – Three Tuns
Biggleswade
Billericay
Birmingham – Corporation St
Birmingham – Mailbox
Bournemouth – Post Office Rd
Bramhall
Bristol – Berkeley Sq
Bristol – Regent St
Bromsgrove
Bruton Place
Charlotte St
Chippenham
Dalton Park
Darlington
Dudley – Merry Hill
Earls Court – Earls Ct Rd
Edinburgh – Holyrood
Formby
Fulham Palace Road
Glasgow – Princes Square
Glossop
Gosforth
Grantham
Halifax
Hampstead
Hatch End
Hereford
Heswall
Ipswich – Lloyds Ave
Leeds – Crown St
Leeds – Horsforth
Ludlow
Lymington
Melton Mowbray
Midhurst
Milton Keynes – Hub
Moseley
New Brighton
Newcastle
Newport – Isle of Wight
Newport – South Wales
Northallerton
Nottingham – Goosegate
O2 Finchley
Orpington
Oxford – Oxford Castle
Poole
Port Solent
Ramsgate
Reading – St Mary’s Butts
Scarborough
Sheffield – Devonshire St
Sheffield The Moor
Shirley
Southport – Old Bank
Stafford
Staines
Stoke
Stourbridge
Sudbury
Torquay
Uxbridge
Wakefield
Walsall
Wapping
Wardour St
Weston-super-Mare
Whiteley Village
Whitstable  

Wrexham

The chain said 89 per cent of its creditors voted for its Company Voluntary Arrangement restructuring deal, which will also see it secure rent reductions. 

It needed a minimum of 75 per cent of creditors to vote in favour of the deal to give it the green light. 

In a statement, Pizza Express said today: 'The successful vote unlocks the company’s ability to actively address the challenges brought by Covid-19, securing over 9,000 jobs in the UK.

'The directors of Pizza Express thank its creditors for their support during this period and look forward to ongoing partnership as the hospitality industry recovers to growth.'

Last month, Pizza Express said the slump in revenue caused by the enforced closure of all restaurants during the pandemic, the cost of reopening, and Britain's uncertain economic future meant its rental costs were no longer sustainable. 

The restructuring will also see a significant de-leveraging on the group’s external debt, reducing it from £735million to £319million.

Around £144million of new funds will be pumped into the business to drive future growth.

Troubled times: The owner of Ask Italian and Zizzi restaurants plans to close 75 of its restaurants, putting 1,200 jobs at risk

The company, which is majority-owned by Chinese firm Hony Capital, also confirmed last month that it had hired advisers from Lazard to lead a sale process for the business.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out Scheme gave the hospitality sector a boost last month, but many casual dining chains look set to struggle as winter rolls in. Many chains in the sector faced dwindling profits and sky-high costs well before lockdown. 

The owner of Ask Italian and Zizzi restaurants plans to close 75 of its restaurants, putting 1,200 jobs at risk. Meanwhile, Casual Dining Group, the owner of Bella Italia, Café Rouge, and Las Iguanas, closed 91 restaurants when it collapsed into the hands of administrators in July. 

Back in June, The Restaurant Group, which owns Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s, said it would close up to 120 restaurants, with nearly 3,000 jobs lost.

Earlier this year, around 1,000 people employed at Italian restaurant chain Carluccio's lost their jobs amid a rescue deal. 

Last year, Jamie's Italian restaurant chain, led by Jamie Oliver, also went into administration, with 1,000 people losing their jobs as 22 sites were closed. 

Collapsed: Jamie's Italian restaurant chain collapsed last year, with 1,000 jobs lost

What's going wrong in the casual dining sector?

Speaking to This is Money, James Hacon, a partner at Think Hospitality Group, said the struggles of the casual dining sector have been 'well documented' for the past few years.

He added: 'There are many factors that this can be attributed to, including Brexit and aggressive expansion causing oversupply in the market. 

'The Covid-19 situation has caused major problems for the wider hospitality sector, with elongated closures, reduced revenues through physical distancing and the major issue of empty city centres right across the UK. 

'While there has been a lot of fantastic support from the Chancellor, to date this has not included support around rents. 

'Most casual dining groups will have a high number of sites in quiet city centres, with little to no support on high rents, it's an impossible situation - especially for businesses already on rocky ground before the pandemic. 

'We are very likely to see many more announcements of redundancies, closures and restructures to come.' 

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2020-09-07 14:49:13Z
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