Pizza Express could be next high street casualty due to £1 BILLION debt, experts warn
The pizza chain has been hit by the rising cost of food, increases in the national minimum wage and national living wage, as well as business rate rises and high rents
PIZZA Express could be the next casualty on the high street due to pressure from mounting debts and rising business costs.
The restaurant chain has yet to publish its end of year results for 2018, but its 2017 annual report reveals that the firm had debts comprising of a whopping £1,077.4million - or just over £1BILLION.
It said it had been impacted by "well-publicised cost headwinds", such as rising food costs, increases in the national minimum wage and national living wage, as well as business rate rises and high rents.
Meanwhile, its results for the first half of 2018 revealed that adverse weather conditions had a "significant impact" on sales.
At the time, Jinlong Wang, chairman and chief executive officer of Pizza Express said that the group expects the "UK trading environment to remain challenging".
But the firm says the debt does not mature for three years, meaning there's no short-term need to refinance or pay the £653million back.
But Pizza Express isn't the only restaurant chain to be suffering.
Jamie Oliver announced plans to close 12 branches of Jamie’s Italian last year as his restaurants lost £9.9million in 2017.
While Byron Burger also announced plans to close 20 restaurants in order to keep the business afloat.
Later in the year, Carluccio’s announced that it would have to close 30 branches as part of restructuring plans.
And Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) also announced plans to close 17 branches late last year.
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