Pizzaexpress adds to london empire
By Angela Jameson
PizzaExpress, which has just acquired a fashionable Mayfair site in London, is on course to open 17 new restaurants by the end of the year and is in negotiations to open 40 to 50 more.
The Mayfair property, located in Bruton Place, previously traded as the Studio Restaurant.
PizzaExpress took on the lease, at £40,000 per annum, just 34 hours after first viewing it, according to Trevor Shelley of property agent Shelley Sandzer.
David Page, managing director of PizzaExpress, predicted the restaurant would be a big success. "Where else can you eat in Mayfair for £8?" he said.
The restaurant will open in a month's time with 140 seats. A private 40-seat dining room, called the Mandrake Club, will also operate alongside it.
Other recent openings include its 180-seat Southgate restaurant in north London, described as the chain's "busiest opening ever" with queues each night, according to Mr Page.
And last week saw an 85-seat Pizza Express open in Beauchamp Place, London.
The company's recent acquisitions from the Celebrated Group continue the group's expansion into affluent market towns. A site in Henley, Oxfordshire, which is currently being refurbished, is set to open at the end of this month.
Restaurants in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and Abingdon, Oxfordshire, will open in mid-June, along with units in Enfield, Charlotte Street and Dulwich, all in London.
The end of June will also see the opening of a franchised restaurant in Didsbury, Manchester, which Mr Page promises will be the last franchised Pizza Express.
High summer will see a rash of openings, from Belfast in Northern Ireland to Sevenoaks in Kent. By the end of 1996, PizzaExpress intends to have 122 restaurants, of which only 37 will be franchised and the remainder company owned and managed.
