How Zizzi and Pizza Hut are among more than 500 family-friendly eateries to shut since 2018

For decades, Britain’s love affair with Italian cuisine seemed unbreakable, with thousands of families packing into restaurants to tuck into their meals each week. 

Italian chains were the titans of the British restaurant industry, with firms like Pizza Express, Prezzo, Pizza Hut and Bella Italia dominating high streets in towns and cities nationwide between the 1990s and 2010s. 

But now the honeymoon period appears to have ground to a brutal halt, as families struggling to pay rising bills choose to say ‘arrivederci’ to their beloved venues – prompting a devastating culling of hundreds of venues.  

More than 500 restaurants from some of the most popular Italian heavyweights have shut in recent years as they too battle with skyrocketing food and energy prices, with at least 8,500 people losing their jobs.

Restauranteurs have today warned the nation’s network of Italian diners are at breaking point, with one veteran London chef telling MailOnline: ‘It’s a fight for survival, it really is.’ 

The situation is a far cry from the nostalgic heydays of the 1980s and 1990s, where the likes of Pizza Hut and Deep Pan Pizza where all the rage. 

Adverts, beamed into homes nationwide, showed happy families slicing gooey pizza slices inside packed restaurants.  

At its peak, Deep Pan Pizza – which specialised in thinker based pizzas – had 89 outlets. But it was bought out in 1998 and all have since closed. 

Even global brand Pizza Hut has not been immune from the crisis facing Britain’s Italian cuisine industry. It announced it would shut 29 restaurants back in 2020, putting 450 jobs in the firing line. 

Many chains were in difficulty even before the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, with the first March lockdown spelling doom for a raft of restaurants as they collapsed into administration. 

Even now, companies are still trying to deal with the hangover from the pandemic, which saw punishing restrictions imposed on the hospitality sector. The financial damage was so severe that many simply never recovered. 

Prezzo, which opened its first site in London in 2000 and had 300 venues at its peak, employing 4,500 staff, has been forced to make savage cuts to save money. 

Since 2018 it has shut a whopping 116 establishments over overextending – with the chain announcing earlier this week that a further 46 venues have been earmarked for closure this year, at a loss of 810.

The brand says the closures come after its utility costs rocketed by more than double and it reported losses of £22.4million in the year to January 2022.

The shake-up will leave the hospitality chain, which returned to profit in the second half of 2021, with 97 restaurants and around 2,000 staff.

Dean Challenger, Prezzo’s chief executive, said the firm was making ‘tough decisions’ amid ‘some of the hardest times I have ever seen for the high street’.

He added: ‘But the reality is that the cost of living crisis, the changing face of the high street and soaring inflation has made it impossible to keep all our restaurants operating profitably.’ 

Prezzo is not alone though. Last month the Restaurant Group. which owns Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito announced they would shut 35 of its restaurants. 

It followed the news in 2020 that 125 venues owned by the chain would be axed, with American-Italian firm Frankie and Benny’s bearing the brunt of the closures.  

Bella Italia, also a staple on British high streets, was forced to shut 33 of its sites in 2020.

While Pizza Express permanently axed 96 of its loss-making sites, along with more than 1,100 of its staff. 

Town and city high streets once bustling with ‘casual diners’ have seen Italian chains wind up their business. 

In Leeds, the city has lost eight different outlets, including three Frankie and Benny’s, two Pizza Express outlets, a Zizzi venue, Bella Italian and an Ask Italian branch.

Andrew Pawson, 46, a marketing executive from Leeds, said: ‘Italian restaurants used to be really popular.

‘They offered simple dishes but there was always something for everyone. If I was ever on a date, it would always be an Italian restaurant I’d book a table at.

‘I think it has lost its appeal a little and the competition is tough. The restaurants don’t appear to have moved with the times.’

Sally Parkinson, 29, a florist, added: ‘I think the reason a lot have closed in Leeds is because there were too many Italian restaurants in the city.

‘The same businesses had two or three restaurants within a few miles of each other and obviously not enough customers booking to make enough money. I don’t think Italian food has the same appeal to younger generations.’

She said: ‘I like going to Italian restaurants and there are still some good ones around. The independent ones seem to be doing better than the chains.

‘I don’t think Leeds will suffer too much. I think others types of restaurants will just take their place.’

And Zane Michaels, 23, a student, said: ‘I don’t think it’s unique to Leeds.Other restaurants have pizza and pasta dishes on the menu, along with offering other traditional dishes, so you don’t have to go to an Italian to get a pizza.

‘The chains did used to dominate but others have caught up and, in some cases, are better now. With the cost of living crisis, people are more careful and more selective.

‘Before, people maybe have just popped out to Pizza Express or Bella Italia for a quick pizza, but it’s quite expensive now.

‘I think the popularity of Italian food has been declining for a while and I’m not too surprised at all the restaurants closing.’

Carmelo Carnevale, President of the Italian Culinary Consortium, said more restaurants were suffering from crippling bill rises and food costs.

The 47-year-old Sicilian, who works as a chef at Lizzie’s Cucina in north London’s told MailOnline: ‘It’s a fight for survival, it really is.

‘It’s very sad this. A lot of it rest closed down especially in London because the costs when so high. 

‘It’s really depressing. We are trying to survive and innovate. But costs are soaring and there is nothing we can do.’

In Essex town of Billericky, its modest high street has seen two major Italian chains shutting up shop, with Pizza Express and Prezzo’s outlets having both closed. 

The news left locals devastated. But the departure of the two Italian giants had an ‘unexpected’ effect, ‘throwing open the doors’ to small, family-run business to set up in the high street. 

‘We are losing chains but we are starting to see more independents arriving,’ said local Councillor Adam Adshead, 58, who has lived in the town for 27 years. 

‘It’s unexpected. I have no idea why this is happening other than that someone is confident is enough to start their own business and believe it will succeed. They’re putting their money in the mouth.’

The restaurant Bella Ischia opened in the former Pizza Express premises a few weeks ago. 

Its manager told MailOnline: ‘It has been challenging but we have been coping quite well so far… It’s going better than expected.’

A spokeswoman for UK Hospitality, which represents the industry, said there were some ‘bright spots’ among all the gloom of recent closures. 

‘There are also examples of some Italian restaurants, such as the Gusto chain, currently opening new sites,’ she said. 

‘The hospitality industry as a whole is facing unprecedented cost pressures, with energy bills double what they were last year and food price input inflation of over 20 per cent. 

‘The reduction in energy support this month is also expected to cause hospitality businesses an 82 per cent rise in bills, however these issues are industry-wide and not specific to Italian restaurants.’

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk