The Pizza Hut at Brighton Marina has closed after the company that owns the British franchise went bust.
The branch is one of 68 to close across the country while 64 outlets were sold as part of a “pre-pack administration”.
Eleven delivery sites have also closed as part of the wider “restructuring” of the business, leaving more than 1,200 people out of a job.
DC London Pie, which had the franchise to run Pizza Hut restaurants in Britain and Ireland, appointed administrators from specialist firm FTI Consulting yesterday (Monday 20 October).
The 64 branches that were saved were sold to Yum! Brands, the American owner of the global Pizza Hut business, preserving 1,276 jobs. Yum! also owns KFC and Taco Bell.
FTI said: “Like many casual dining businesses, DC has been impacted by challenging trading conditions and increased costs.
“In addition, it faced material cash flow pressures as a result of tax-related obligations.”
The increased costs have included bigger energy bills and higher taxes such as employees’ national insurance.
Pizza Hut’s UK business previously went into administration in January this year when it was bought by the American private equity firm Directional Capital – not the chain’s first private equity owner.
Two other Sussex branches closed yesterday – at Crawley Leisure Park and, in Eastbourne, at the Admiral Retail Park, in Lottbridge Drove.
There was a time when Pizza Hut had more than 260 outlets and 10,000 employees in Britain alone but, like many firms in the food and drink sector, the coronavirus pandemic brought huge challenges.
In September 2020, the business went into administration, closing 29 sites, as well as the failure of the firm in January this year and, once again, yesterday.
The level of insolvencies in the hospitality sector is at a historical high, as in other sectors, with some regarding the budget next month as a make-or-break affair.
Oh well
….what a pity, never mind!
I had the displeasure of going there a while ago- it’s was very expensive and the salad bar was terrible compared to was it used to be like before (still not great)
It’s similar story everywhere- everything worse and more expensive to cut costs and improve profit. People stop buying. Shops shut. More unemployment, less money being spent. Repeat.
Meanwhile the wage gap between the c-level staff and the bulk of employees continues to widen. The ultra rich continue to get even richer at faster rate whilst 99.5% of the population gets poorer.
I’m sure the solution we try will be either be giving the rich yet another tax cut and or putting a flag on a lamp post or something nice and easy that will do nothing to stop the root issue of the greedy few manipulating an exploiting the many whilst telling them that their problems are all due to some other bunch of poor people, not the multi-billionaires that have, of course, only got their best interest at heart.
Exactly this.
Cobblers. The increased energy and employment taxes are because of net zero and NI plus employment law. All to pay for increased pay for governments workers and their generous pensions. The super rich, who paid most of the income tax have left and now the not so rich will pay more tax and restaurants will be empty.
I ordered a takeaway and they nearly poisoned me! Complained to no avail. Safer now they are closed.
Gutted about this. The Marina Pizza Hut was my go to after watching a movie in the Cineworld. 🙁
I’m actually shocked at the way a minority of people are commenting. You may not have like the brand but the staff worked so hard and have now lost their jobs.
Hope you’re never in the same position! Disgraceful!