Latest news with #PeterBoizot
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grade II listed town centre restaurant put up for sale
A Grade II listed restaurant in an Oxfordshire town centre has been put up for sale. Pizza Express in St. Marys Street, Wallingford, is on the market for a guide price of £375,000. The property, which is being marketed by Prideview Group, is situated within the town centre on the west side of St Mary's Street, opposite St Mary-le-More Church. READ MORE: Victim at centre of manslaughter probe named Arranged over two floors, the property has a ground floor restaurant and a self-contained flat above. It also benefits from a terrace at the back which provides additional covers for the restaurant The listing on Zoopla states that the ground floor is let to Pizza Express on a lease for a term of 25 years from March 2003. Pizza Express is a British multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot. The company has grown to have over 360 pizzerias in the UK and Ireland, and has also expanded internationally. READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson admits he is on 'very steep learning curve' after TB outbreak The restaurant in Wallingford has a TripAdvisor score of 3.4 based on 164 reviews and remains open, according to Google. The Zoopla listing adds that the first floor flat is sold-off and let for a term of 125 years from 2003 with a rent of £200 p.a, with the ground rent doubling every 25th anniversary. The total rental income for the property is £34,200 per year.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PizzaExpress listed by UK government for minimum wage payment failure
Casual dining chain PizzaExpress has been listed among more than 500 companies that failed to pay some staff the UK's legal minimum wage, as reported by The Caterer. According to the UK Department for Business and Trade, 60,000 workers across various companies have been compensated more than £7.4m ($9.96m) due to wage discrepancies. PizzaExpress was second on the list and owed £706,701 to 8,470 workers, averaging £83 per employee. A PizzaExpress spokesperson stated: 'Once we were made aware of this historic unintentional technicality, which occurred between 2012 and 2018, we swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified [it]. There's nothing more important to us than fairly and accurately paying our team members.' Hilton UK Hotels Limited was also cited for underpaying £18,924 to 20 staff members. The companies have been fined up to 200% of the amount underpaid. Many have attributed the underpayments to past administrative or technical errors. The Caterer reports that these issues were resolved years ago, suggesting that the underpayments were not recent occurrences. The UK National Living Wage in the UK has increased to £12.21 per hour for those aged 21 and over. The minimum wage for workers aged 18 to 20 is now £10 per hour. Those under 18 and apprentices must be paid at least £7.55 on an hourly basis. PizzaExpress secured a significant refinancing deal in April 2025, which will reduce its debt by £55m. The agreement includes a £55m par debt paydown, decreasing the company's debt to £280m. Bain Capital Special Situations and other shareholders have contributed £20m in equity to Wheel Topco, the parent company of PizzaExpress. PizzaExpress was founded by Peter Boizot in London's Soho in 1965. The brand now has more than 360 pizzerias in the UK and Ireland and has expanded into 12 international markets. "PizzaExpress listed by UK government for minimum wage payment failure" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Telegraph
07-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Struggling Pizza Express set for £30m lifeline as tax rises loom
Pizza Express shareholders are reportedly preparing to inject millions of pounds into the restaurant chain as the casual-dining industry braces for the impact of tax rises in April. Bain Capital, the private equity firm, is poised to pay £30m to Pizza Express as part of an attempt to secure a refinancing of its debts, Sky News said. The chain, whose parent company Wheel Topco is based in Jersey, has a £335m bond which is due for repayment next year. A deal is said to have not yet been finalised. Bain and Cyrus Capital Partners, another private equity firm, were among a handful of bondholders that took control of the chain following a restructuring in 2020. It comes as casual-dining chains grapple with slowing footfall and the prospect of soaring costs when increased National Insurance (NI) payments announced by the Chancellor in October kick in next month. Hospitality bosses have warned that this, combined with an accompanying jump in the minimum wage, will lead to lower investment and risks fuelling food inflation if they are forced to pass on the higher cost of labour. There are worries about whether customers will accept higher costs after years of rising prices. Sales at Britain's leading restaurant, pub and bar groups were by 1.3pc lower in January than they had been a year earlier, according to CGA, a data firm. Series of ownership changes Pizza Express runs around 350 restaurants across the UK and Ireland. Founded in 1965 in London by Peter Boizot, the chain is credited with popularising pizza in Britain, and benefited from an explosion in demand in the 1990s and early 2000s. Over the past two decades, however, the business has undergone a series of ownership changes that has left it overextended across Britain and struggling to keep up with newer, more modern rivals. Losses at the company hit £350m in 2019 as it buckled under the weight of a £1.1bn debt pile that was reportedly costing it £93m annually. Following a turbulent period in which it closed dozens of restaurants and slashed jobs, Pizza Express has spent recent years attempting to rejuvenate its image, refurbishing stores so they are reminiscent of its 1990s heyday and opening new restaurants in areas such as Cranleigh, Maidenhead, Cheltenham and Hackney. Latest available accounts for the company's UK trading company Pizza Express (Restaurants) show revenues rose by more than £27m to £367m in 2023, although it fell to a pre-tax loss of £6.4m. In 2023 Pizza Express emerged as a potential suitor for The Restaurant Group, the parent company of rival chain Wagamama, during a sale process that year, but pulled out of talks shortly after, blaming market conditions.
