Prezzo closures: full list of 46 restaurants closing - which stores are shutting across UK?

Prezzo is shutting 46 loss-making restaurants across the UK after struggling to cope with soaring energy and food costs.

The Italian restaurant chain said around 810 members of staff are at risk of redundancy as part of the overhaul, with workers informed about the closures on Monday morning (24 April).

A consultation process has been launched and Prezzo said it will work to redeploy “as many staff internally as possible”, while supporting others in new opportunities.

The restaurant group said costs have leapt over the past year, with its utility bills more than doubling and double-digit wage inflation, and the cuts will affect sites where “the post-Covid recovery has proved harder than we had hoped”.

It has also been impacted by soaring food inflation, which hit a 45-year high last month, with Prezzo witnessing a 40% increase in the cost of spaghetti, 28% rise for pizza sauce and 15% increase in the cost of its dough balls.

The shake-up will leave the chain with 97 restaurants and around 2,000 staff.

The closures are set to impact some high street sites as its portfolio shifts more towards those “in better locations to cater to changing consumer habits” such as shopping centres, retail parks and tourist destinations.

Dean Challenger, chief executive of Prezzo, said: “The last three years have been some of the hardest times I have ever seen for the high street and I’m extremely proud of the way our colleagues have retained Prezzo’s position as an appealing, trusted, great value food and drink experience.

"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.

“We believe the tough decisions we are making today will ensure Prezzo can continue serving communities with high-quality, accessible Italian-inspired meals for many more years to come.”

The hospitality firm fell into administration in late 2020 after the heavy impact of the pandemic, before being snapped up by current private equity owners Cain International. The new closure plan comes two years after the group previously shut 22 restaurants and cut 216 jobs.

Which Prezzo restaurants will close?

Listed are the 46 Prezzo restaurants due to close across the UK:

• Beccles, Suffolk
• Billericay, Essex
• Bolton, Greater Manchester
• Borehamwood, Hertfordshire
• Boston, Lincolnshire
• Bracknell, Berkshire
• Brentwood, Essex
• Buckhurst Hill, Essex
• Buckingham, Buckinghamshire
• Chichester, West Sussex
• Chingford, London
• Colchester, Essex
• Corby, Northamptonshire
• Didcot, Oxfordshire
• Eastbourne, East Sussex
• Egham, Surrey
• Eltham, London
• Ely, Cambridgeshire
• Epsom, Surrey
• Fleet, Hampshire
• Glasgow, St Vincent Place
• Hailsham, East Sussex
• Harpenden, Hertfordshire
• Livingston, West Lothian
• Lyndhurst, Hampshire
• Maidstone, Kent
• Mere Green, Birmingham
• Mill Hill, London
• Oxford, Oxfordshire
• Plymouth, Devon
• Redditch, Worcestershire
• Redhill, Surrey
• Rugby, Warwickshire
• Shepperton, Surrey
• Shirley, Warwickshire
• Sidcup, London
• St Neots, Cambridgeshire
• Stowmarket, Suffolk
• Tenterden, Kent
• Tunbridge Wells, Kent
• Weybridge, Surrey
• Whitstable, Kent
• Wickford, Essex
• Wimborne, Dorset
• Winchester, Hampshire
• Woodford Green, London