Pizza Hut confirms 29 restaurants to close putting 450 jobs at risk

PIZZA Hut has confirmed it will close 29 branches in a last ditch attempt to save the businesses, putting 450 jobs at risk.

The chain was today rescued from the brink of collapse after landlords agreed to reduce rents on restaurant branches.

⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates

They voted to support an insolvency process called a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) that will see the majority of Pizza Hut's restaurants continue to trade.

Landlords and creditors voted in favour of the CVA, which will see them take a cut on future bills to keep the company from going bust.

If they hadn't agreed to cut costs, the struggling American-Italian pizza chain would have gone bust.

But 29 branches will shut for good as part of the process. It means Pizza Hut's portfolio will be reduced from 244 branches across the UK to 215, saving 5,000 jobs. Takeaways are not affected by the closures.

It is not yet clear exactly when the restaurants are due to close.

A Pizza Hut Restaurants spokesperson said: "We are delighted to have reached such a constructive position in partnership with our landlords and creditors.

"We appreciate the support of everyone involved and this outcome provides us with a strong platform to secure the long-term future of the business including over 5,000 jobs and over 200 restaurants.

"Our focus is now "business as usual" supporting all of our team members and continuing to provide a Covid-safe restaurant experience for our guests."

Pizza Hut is the latest restaurant chain to attempt to push through site closures following the coronavirus crisis.

Since the pandemic enforced lockdown, Pizza Express, Wahaca, Wasabi, Byron and Yo! Sushi have all used the CVA process to scale back sites.

Retailers have also relied on this form of insolvency, including New Look, which has signed rental agreements based on sales, rather than a fixed amount.

In general, commercial property owners have continued to vote in favour of CVAs preferring to secure an agreement based on lower rent rather than risk empty shops if chains become insolvent.

In August, Pizza Hut said it would try not to cut jobs or close branches despite suffering huge losses earlier this year.

Even so, it put forward the CVA proposals in early September as sales were "not expected to fully bounce back until well into 2021" despite it reopening branches.

Rival Pizza Express confirmed this month that it will shut 73 restaurants with 1,100 job losses after its own CVA deal was approved by creditors.