The Pizza Express in Street is set to re-open tomorrow (August 20) after it was not named in the list of closures announced by the company.

The Street restaurant is now taking bookings for dine-in, takeaway or click and collect, and from tomorrow will also have availability for walk-in customers during the day and evening.

The news about the Street branch will be a welcome relief for the employees there as last night the company announced the closure of 73 of its 454 restaurants, also listing the venues to close.

The closures, which will see 1,100 jobs lost, come as the company formally launched a company voluntary arrangement in a bid to restructure the group and keep it afloat.

A company statement said most of its restaurants had traded profitably before lockdown, but their earnings had been declining over the past three years.

A collapse in earnings due to lockdown, coupled with the cost of re-opening restaurants and uncertainty over the economy, meant that the rents paid on premises were too much for Pizza Express to bear.

The company said that in most cases, the restaurants that were chosen to close were nearby to another Pizza Express.