Pizza Express to reopen 150 more restaurants in the next fortnight
The Hony Capital owned restaurant chain will reopen 71 restaurants for dine-in on Thursday 30 July with an additional 88 restaurants opening a week later on Thursday 6 August. The group is already operating dine in from 46 sites, meaning it will have more than 200 restaurants up and running by early August.
The reopening plan follows what PizzaExpress describes successful ‘test and learn’ trials of delivery, click-and-collect and dine-in services at selected pizzerias since 9 July. Further phases of UK restaurant reopenings will be announced shortly.
The group will be participating in the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme and as a further incentive it is currently offering dine-in customers a free portion of dough balls with every main course ordered.
Restaurants will have a physically distanced layout, hand sanitiser stations, heightened hygiene procedures and cleaning measures along with regular health checks of team members. PizzaExpress has also introduced a new online booking service, as well as a new digital menu and cashless payment to assist and reassure customers.
“It’s been very exciting to welcome customers back into our restaurants in the last fortnight, and our teams are looking forward to reopening hundreds more pizzerias in the next few weeks," says managing director Zoe Bowley.
"The response to our online booking system, new digital menus and cashless payments has been fantastic, and we encourage everyone to use these services as much as possible as their local restaurant reopens.”
“We’re working hard to provide the PizzaExpress experience that our customers love in a safe and responsible way, as we bring back our freshly handmade pizza to even more locations as soon as we can.”
