Pizza Express to sell some outlets

Pizza Express has put a part of its business up for sale as it tries to rekindle its 1990s success.

Pizza Express has put a part of its business up for sale as it tries to rekindle its 1990s success.

The group is considering closing or relocating around a dozen of its 340 restaurants as part of a widespread review started in February.

According to Property Weekmagazine, they include 10 London sites as well as Brighton, Hull, Dundee and Perth.

The sell-off follows the closure of five loss-making restaurants in the regions over the past two months.

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At its peak, Pizza Express expanded rapidly, opening between 30 and 35 restaurants a year.

But it has since suffered from flagging sales and in June was bought out by GondolaExpress, a bid vehicle for venture capital firm TDR and Capricorn Ventures, a South African family run firm.

The new owners have been reviewing the business in an effort to stem the chain's sliding sales and reduce costs.

Pizza Express, which was started in the 1960s, said it had refurbished around 90 per cent of its outlets in the past year and would be opening eight new restaurants in the next six months.