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73 closures can’t stem the tide at Pizza Express
1,300 Pizza Express workers will lose their jobs in more cuts at the beloved pizza chain, according to Propel. Having agreed to close 73 restaurants at the cost of 1,100 jobs last month, the latest round of cuts is more directly reflective of the impact of COVID-19. The initial closures, while hastened by the pandemic, were caused by £1.1 billion of debt accumulated in a game of private equity pass-the-parcel.
The brand directly referred to the “polo mint” economy phenomenon in explaining the cuts, whereby the centres of cities experience sharper downturn than suburban or residential areas. It said, “Although some restaurants in suburban and out-of-town locations have continued to trade comparatively well, some city centre sites have been particularly hard-hit. Against this backdrop, and particularly given the expectation that footfall will continue to be affected during the winter months and beyond, the company has had to make the difficult decision to reduce the size of its restaurant teams.” [Propel]
And in other news...
- A new study from the University of Warwick links the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to a spike in coronavirus infection clusters in the U.K, concluding that the scheme was “responsible for around eight to 17 percent of all infections during the summer month [...] that may have substantially contributed to accelerating the second wave of the pandemic.”
- Residencies, online events, and one-offs have been a key tool for restaurants since March — here are the best pop-ups in London right now.
- London restaurants take their support for free school meals to Instagram, raising awareness of the campaign spearheaded by footballer Marcus Rashford.
- Great British Bake Off Japanese Week was a sad reminder of its blinkered view of global baking.
- Where’s the beef? Here’s the beef, in London’s best burgers.
- Gordon Ramsay is serving his “Street Pizza” off the street and in a restaurant for the third time, in Southwark. [Big Hospitality]
- Affordable steak chain Flat Iron continues to grow with a new restaurant in Marylebone. [Hot Dinners]
- Good tweet:
going on a secret mission to rip out the Y keys from every Bon Appetit employee’s computer pic.twitter.com/HKbVsq9mdq
— Kyle Chayka (@chaykak) October 29, 2020