Has there ever been a better time to be a pizza aficionado in the UK? With the possible exception of burgers, it’s difficult to think of a category of cuisine that has seen more innovation over the past few years.
The focus of the NPD has, in the main, been styles of pizza that have originated in the US including New York, Detroit and New Haven apizza but the tricky to define London style pizza - a creative take on the genre that borrows from both American and Italian traditions - is also on the up.
Brands to watch in the capital include Crisp Pizza, Lenny’s Apizza, Alley Cats Pizza, Dough Hands and Franco Manca-owner Fulham Shore’s Super Club Roma spin off. But there’s innovation taking place in the regions too, with outfits such as 5 Boroughs Pizza (Winchester), Flour & Ash (Bristol), Yeastie Boys (Brighton), Gracey’s Pizza (St Albans), Nell’s (Manchester) and Great British Pizza Co (Margate) taking the category to new heights.
But it will be some time before any of these newcomers take a significant slice of the pizza market, such is the footprint of the established players and the more challenging landscape all restaurant operators face.
Pizza Express remains the brand to beat in the restaurant space having navigated the challenges of the casual dining sector better than most over the past decade or so to become a formidable multi-channel brand.
All conceived by members of the Kaye family, its key high street competitors - Zizzi, Prezzo and ASK Italian - continue to maintain a significant presence with around 300 restaurants between them but can’t compete with the omni-channel might of the UK’s OG casual dining brand. Pizza Express doesn’t just dominate the pizza space, it’s the leading brand in the wider sector.
Snapping at these four well-established brand’s heels are three younger groups that serve a different and more authentic style of Italian pizza. Franco Manca, Rudy’s Pizza and Pizza Pilgrims have done a good job of popularising Neapolitan pizza throughout the UK. Notably, they are more focused operators than those that have come before them with less wide-ranging menus (none of them sell pasta, for example).
In terms of restaurants, Italian-style pizzas continue to dominate with just one major player - the recently-rescued Pizza Hut - serving a style of pizza that was perfected stateside. This wasn’t always the case, however. From the 70s until the late 90s the branded pizza market was dominated by US-themed operators, some of which - including Deep Pan Pizza and Pizzaland - have now disappeared completely.
It’s a different story in the delivery-only space with all the major players serving what can broadly be described as US-style pizza, which is perhaps unsurprising given that the majority of them originate from across the pond. But thanks to the likes of Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats casual dining pizza brands have been able to take a bite out of Domino’s and Papa Johns’ market share.
Given what is happening in the independent restaurant space, chances are US pizza will make a casual dining comeback over the coming years. Whatever happens, pizza – a real crowd-pleaser which offers some of the best margins in the business - will remain a mainstay of both the restaurant and delivery spaces.
Restaurants
Pizza Express
Founded: 1965
Number of sites: 354
Launched by Peter Boizot in Soho, Pizza Express has dominated the dine-in pizza sector for the past 50 years and is arguably the UK’s original casual dining brand. The company operates 354 restaurants in the UK - down from a high of around 400 in 2011 - as well as around 100 internationally and was one of the first restaurant brands to launch into retail with its range of chilled pizzas and sauces and says there is a 50% overlap between those customers who eat at its restaurants and its retail pizzas. Recent developments from the company include the launch of a grab-and-go Pizza Express Pod concept at a Tesco Extra in Southampton, which is housed in a shipping container outside the supermarket’s main entrance, with customers able to order nearly all items from the group’s full restaurant menu including its signature pizzas, dough balls, pasta dishes and salads. The group opened three new pizzerias in the UK last year and will make its US debut this year with a restaurant in Florida as part of a plan to operate a total of 1,000 restaurants globally by 2030.
Pizza Hut Restaurants
Founded: 1958 (arrived in the UK in 1973)
Number sites: 139
Founded in Wichita, Kansas, Pizza Hut is so called because the then owner’s sign only had eight letters. They might share a website, but Pizza Hut Restaurants is a separate entity from Pizza Hut Delivery, which operates 343 sites on these shores (see Delivery players, below). Over the years Pizza Hut has become something of an outlier - in the restaurant space, at least - being the only major player to serve US-style pizza. It’s not been plain sailing for Pizza Hut Restaurant’s UK operation of late following an auditor’s report that warned of ‘uncertainty’ over the group’s future despite it moving from a £3m loss in 2022 to a £1.75m operating profit in 2023. This precipitated an ultimately successful search for a new buyer or investor, with Pizza Hut Restaurant’s franchise operator Heart with Smart sold to Directional Capital in a pre-pack administration early this year. Just one restaurant closed as a result of the transaction.
Zizzi
Founded: 1999
Number of sites: 137
Launched in Chiswick by ASK Italian founders Samuel and Adam Kaye as a more modern and youthful counterpoint to the existing Italian chains, Zizzi was sold to what was then the Gondola Group in 2006 and which was later named Azzurri Group in 2015. While the group’s presence has diminished over the past few years - its parent company became insolvent in 2020 and had to be rescued - it has fared considerably better than its older sibling.
Prezzo
Founded: 2000
Number of sites: 97
Launched on New Oxford Street, the first Prezzo was actually called Jonathan’s after founder Jonathan Kaye. In its prime the brand had more than 300 sites – opening 34 sites in 2007 alone – but has struggled in more recent years, closing 94 restaurants in 2018. In 2023 it restructured, closing another third of its estate. At the start of last year, the group announced a return to profitability following a restructure of its business. The brand says it intends to refurbish its restaurant estate over the next couple of years as well as introduce a breakfast menu and a new retail range.
Franco Manca
Founded: 2008
Number of sites: 72
Franco Manca might not have been the first to bring Neapolitan pizza to the UK but - due to its impressive footprint - has played a bigger role popularising it on these shores than anyone else. The business was founded by Giuseppe Mascoli and Bridget Hugo in 2008 with the opening of the restaurant in Brixton Market. In March 2015, it was bought by The Fulham Shore, which quickly set about building a strong national presence. The restaurant took its name from the original 1986 Brixton pizzeria on the site that was called Franco’s and which was named after its owner. The name Franco Manca translates as ‘Franco is missing’ and is a reference to the original restaurant.
ASK Italian
Founded: 1993
Number of sites: 66
Taking its name from the initials of its founder Adam and Samuel Kaye, ASK became ASK Italian in 2010. Now part of Azzurri Group, which also owns Italian chain Zizzi, the brand has attempted to have a community feel with interiors often featuring bespoke artwork. Much like Prezzo, the brand’s presence on the UK high street has dwindled over the past few years. The first ASK Italian for four years opened in late 2023 in Merry Hill shopping centre in Dudley.
Rudy’s Pizza
Founded: 2015
Sites: 31
Launched in Manchester’s Ancoats suburb, Rudy’s Pizza has made the transition from being a Northern-centric operator to a true national player. Expansion has been pacey with the group - which is now part of Mission Mars - having doubled in size over the past three years. The menu is tight with about 15 pizzas that wouldn’t look out of place on the table of a Naples pizzeria.
Pizza Pilgrims
Founded:2012
Sites: 24
Brothers Thom and James Elliott remain very active in the Neapolitan pizza business they started more than a decade ago out of a pizza van. London remains the playful Neapolitan pizza group’s heartland but in recent years it has made its first steps beyond the capital with sites in Brighton, Nottingham, Oxford, Leeds, and Cambridge. Towards the end of last year, it was revealed that the group had appointed advisors to explore strategic and investment options for its next stage of expansion, which includes a relaunch of its spin-off QSR brand Slice. Between three and five new openings are planned for this year including a site in Edinburgh, which will be the groups’ first site north of the border.
Yard Sale
Founded: 2014
Sites: 13
London-based Yard Sale has built a successful business model around taking on unwanted, and often very cheap sites in underdeveloped but up-and-coming areas in Zones 3 and 4. Founders Johnnie Tate and Nick Buckland started out in and around Hackney but are gradually making their way around the capital (a site will open in the South London suburb of Earlsfield later this year). While the brand is delivery-focused - it fulfils its own logistics - the majority of its sites offer eat-in - although seating is more limited than most branded pizza restaurants - and are licensed to sell alcohol. While Yard Sale follows Neapolitan-style techniques, the company is not a slave to tradition. Toppings options for its huge 18-inch pies include the Harlamb Shake (harissa lamb, guindilla chillies, goats’ cheese and a red onion and mint yoghurt dressing) and the Cour Blimey (courgette ribbons, pancetta and black pepper).
Fatto a Mano
Founded: 2015
Sites: 6
Following success in Brighton and Hove - the group has three sites in the seaside city - Fatto a Mano has launched three central London restaurants. Headed by Rupert Davidson, Fatto a Mano (which means ‘handmade’ in Italian) offers a tight menu of Neapolitan pizza.
Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza
Founded: 2018
Sites: 6
Gordon Ramsay Group’s pizza chain’s USP is its bottomless model with the six restaurants offering unlimited pizza for £20. The brand has three sites in London and a further three in the regions in Reading, Liverpool and Woking. Expansion has slowed in recent years, but the group made a further play in the pizza space with the acquisition of the Pizza East brand in 2023.
Pizza Punks
Founded: 2015
Number of sites: 6
Launched by Brad Stevens in Glasgow, Pizza Punks has a conventional menu of pizzas but also allows customers to create a completely bespoke pizza with unlimited toppings for a set price of £13.95. The Northern-centric group said it was gearing up for growth in 2023 following a strong post-Covid performance but since then a couple of sites have closed and no new ones have opened.
Pizza Union
Founded: 2013
Number of sites: 5
London-based ‘pizza bar’ group Pizza Union has a fast casual model priding itself on the quick delivery of its 12-inch Roman style crispy pizzas and its comparably low prices. Following a positive set of results in 2022, founder Bobby Hashemi said he was looking to acquire more sites in the capital.
Santa Maria
Founded: 2010
Sites: 5
Santa Maria will mark its 15th anniversary later this month with the launch of its sixth London restaurant. The new sites will be located in Paddington’s Norfolk Place and will join Santa Maria locations in Ealing, Fulham, Fitzrovia, Islington and Kew Gardens. The business is headed by Angelo Ambrosio and Pasquale Chionchio and is focused on authentic Neapolitan pizza.
Delivery players
Domino’s
Founded: 1960 (arrived in the UK in 1985)
Number sites: 1,350
Marking its 40th year in the UK this year, Domino’s has grown to become the UK’s largest pizza delivery brand. The group now has 1,300 stores in the UK, nearly all of which are franchise operated, and in its most recent results for Q3 2024 it toasted a return to like-for-like sales growth, with total orders up 3.5% to £17.4m. Further growth is planned in the years to come, with the group aiming to reach more than 1,600 stores by 2028 and 2,000 by 2033, across the UK and Ireland.
Papa Johns
Founded: 1984 (arrived in the UK in 1999)
Number of sites: 421
It’s been a tough couple of years for Papa Johns, with the American-styled pizza delivery brand being forced to close nearly a tenth of its UK sites last year following a review of the business, which identified dozens of locations that were ‘no longer financially viable’. Despite this and its troubled recent financial figures, which saw like-for-like sales fall and pre-tax losses widen, the group’s resolve remains determined, and it says it is ‘committed to driving growth in the UK and improving results over the long term’.
Pizza Hut Delivery
Founded: 1958 (the brand’s first delivery-only site launched in the UK in 1988)
Number of sites: 343
Not to be confused with Pizza Hut’s restaurant arm, which is an entirely separate entity (see Pizza Hut Restaurants above), Pizza Hut Delivery is owned by Yum! Brands and has a far broader reach than its dine-in counterpart. This has been bolstered in recent years by a concerted expansion drive, with the franchised delivery brand setting out plans to open 125 new sites back in 2020.
Pizza GoGo
Founded: 1987
Number of sites: 130
Despite a backdrop of challenging conditions and market uncertainty, Pizza GoGo has continued to perform well in recent years with the group’s latest annual results reporting a solid 10.8% rise in turnover and a profit after tax of £2.4m.
Fireaway
Founded: 2016
Number of sites: 163
By the standards of other brands in the pizza delivery space, Fireaway is a young buck, but it has certainly proved itself to be an impressive proposition, with more than 100 of its 163 UK sites having been opened in the past three years. Indeed, Fireaway claims to be the fastest-growing pizza company in the UK. Speed is the group’s USP, with Fireaway’s pizzas cooked in a stone fired oven at 400°C in 150 seconds.
Tops Pizza
Founded: 1989
Number of sites: 78
Smaller in scale to many of its rivals in the pizza delivery space, Tops Pizza’s estate is mainly based in the Southwest.
Four Star Pizza
Founded: 1981 (arrived in Great Britain in 1986)
Number of sites: 13 (41 in ROI)
For those on the UK mainland who may not be familiar with Four Star Pizza, the brand hails from the US. Global expansion led it to open on the island of Ireland in 1986 and it has since expanded across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
