PizzaExpress explores a sale that could reach £500m

PizzaExpress has engaged investment bank Rothschild to explore a potential sale, with a valuation that could reach £500 million, after approaches from industry bidders and investment firms.

The chain is owned by Bain Capital's special situations unit and Cyrus Capital Partners, which took control through a 2020 restructuring that wiped out previous owner Hony Capital's equity. A sale process, if it goes ahead, would be the clearest sign yet that the current owners see the turnaround as complete enough to cash out.

For the year to 28 December 2025, PizzaExpress reported revenue of £440 million, down 0.5% from £442 million the year before, while adjusted Ebitda rose 6.3% to £53 million from £49 million. Shareholders injected £20 million into the business as part of a refinancing deal to strengthen the balance sheet.

A pizza chain selling itself on chicken wings and self-service screens says plenty about where casual dining margin now sits.

Growth beyond the dining room

PizzaExpress opened seven new UK restaurants and two in Hong Kong in 2025, and has since pushed into formats that look nothing like its traditional trattoria-style sites. Mac & Wings, a delivery-only mac and cheese and chicken wings brand, launched in March 2026, and the group holds European master franchise rights for Houston Hot Chicken, with plans for up to 50 UK locations.

A first quick-service-style PizzaExpress opened in Brixton, south London, with self-ordering screens replacing table service, a format the company is understood to be watching closely before deciding whether to roll it out further.

A crowded field for casual dining deals

Any sale would land in a UK casual dining market already working through change: rival Stonegate's pub estate is the subject of a separate roughly £300 million approach from Heineken, while sector-wide data released this week showed UK hospitality insolvencies falling 24% in August, a sign that some of the post-pandemic shakeout has run its course.

PizzaExpress's own numbers tell a similarly mixed story: a business growing its margin while its core UK like-for-like sales barely move, propped up by spin-off brands rather than the pizza counter that built the chain. Whoever buys it will be betting on those newer formats as much as the original one.