Papa Johns pizza to shut nearly a tenth of UK sites

Papa Johns says 43 of its restaurants are ’no longer financially viable’ The chain has 450 restaurants plus others in service stations and holiday parks. It has not said how many jobs will be hit by the closures. Revolution Bars has said it could sell all or part of its outlets. The closures are all in England and extend from Harrogate, North Yorkshire to St Helens, Merseyside, Billericay, Essex and Eastbourne, East Sussex.

All of them were “underperforming locations that are no longer financially viable. US-owned Papa Johns said the UK was its second biggest market. It was committed to driving growth in the UK and improving results over the long term. Revolution Bars, which also owns Revolucion de Cuba, said it was exploring all the strategic options available to it to improve the future prospects.

Revolution said it was talking to key shareholders about raising extra funds. This could include restructuring parts of the group or a sale. Figures showed there was a rise in new retail outlets opened last year. But the openings were not enough to outweigh the places where chains, such as Wilko, shut up shop.