Who owns PizzaExpress?

Its former lenders do. PizzaExpress is owned by Wheel Topco Limited, a holding company in Jersey. Its largest shareholders are funds run by two American investment firms, Bain Capital's special situations arm and Cyrus Capital Partners, which lent money to PizzaExpress and swapped that debt for control of the business in November 2020.

That answer may not last long. On 21 September 2026 the trade press, following the Financial Times, reported that the owners were working with the bank Rothschild on a possible sale that could value PizzaExpress at about £500 million. No deal had been announced when we checked.

What does the register show?

The restaurants are run by PizzaExpress (Restaurants) Limited, company number 02805490, registered in Uxbridge. It was incorporated in 1993.

Its persons-with-significant-control register leads up a chain of British PizzaExpress companies, each owning all of the one below: PizzaExpress Limited, PizzaExpress Operations Limited, PizzaExpress Group Limited and then PizzaExpress Financing 2 plc, the company that sits at the top of the British group.

Above that the register stops helping. From November 2020 it named Wheel Bidco Limited, a Jersey company, as the owner of PizzaExpress Financing 2 plc. Since June 2024 it has carried a statement that there is no registrable person or company instead, and the filings do not say why.

The accounts fill the gap. PizzaExpress Financing 2 plc's accounts for the year to 28 December 2025 say its immediate parent is Wheel Bidco Limited and its ultimate parent is Wheel Topco Limited, both registered in Jersey. Wheel Topco is the top company for the whole group. The accounts do not name the investors who own Wheel Topco, and after the 2020 takeover the directors wrote that no single ultimate owner could be identified because the shares were spread across several investors.

How did the lenders end up owning it?

Through a restructuring in 2020. PizzaExpress had been bought in 2014 by Hony Capital, a Chinese private equity firm, for about £900 million, and by 2020, with its restaurants shut by the pandemic, it was carrying more than £700 million of debt it needed to restructure.

A group of its bondholders, including Cyrus Capital Partners, Bain Capital Credit and H.I.G. Capital, agreed to take control of the business in exchange for writing off much of what they were owed. The plan announced in August 2020 cut its debt from £735 million to £319 million. At the same time a company voluntary arrangement, approved in September 2020, let PizzaExpress close or exit dozens of restaurants. The restructuring was completed on 5 November 2020, and Hony, the previous majority shareholder, lost control. Its business in mainland China was sold separately to a company linked to Hony.

In April 2025 the owners put £20 million of new money into the business, and bondholders agreed to push back the date its bonds fall due to 2029. Bain Capital was described at the time as Wheel Topco's largest shareholder.

Who started PizzaExpress?

Peter Boizot, a British entrepreneur. He opened the first PizzaExpress on Wardour Street in Soho, London, on 27 March 1965, with an oven shipped over from Naples.

Before Hony, it went through several owners. It was taken private in 2003 by the investment firms TDR Capital and Capricorn Associates, became part of a listed group called Gondola Holdings, and was bought with Gondola by the private equity firm Cinven, which bid in 2006 in a deal worth about £900 million including debt.

How big is PizzaExpress now?

The group made revenue of £440 million in 2025, much the same as the year before. PizzaExpress's own investor pages give about 370 restaurants in the UK and Ireland and 80 abroad, most of the overseas ones run by franchise partners. Its chief executive is Paula MacKenzie and its chair is Allan Leighton.

Is PizzaExpress independent?

Not by our verified independent badge, which marks a locally and privately owned business rather than a chain, franchise or private-equity estate. PizzaExpress is a national chain of several hundred restaurants, owned by investment funds through a Jersey holding company, so an individual PizzaExpress is a branch of that business, not a proprietor-owned local.

The useful label is national chain, owned by investment funds. It is not a franchise on the British high street: the company runs its UK restaurants itself, apart from a small number of franchised sites, and uses franchise partners mainly abroad. One of its earlier owners is still a big name on the high street: TDR Capital, which took PizzaExpress private in 2003, now owns Stonegate, the UK's biggest pub company.

Questions people ask

Is PizzaExpress Chinese-owned?

Not any more. Hony Capital, a Chinese private equity firm, owned it from 2014 until November 2020, when its lenders took control. Its largest shareholders now are American investment firms, through a Jersey holding company.

Is PizzaExpress Italian?

No. It was founded in London in 1965 by Peter Boizot, who was British, and has always been a British business. The food and the original oven were Italian; the owners never were.

Is PizzaExpress being sold?

Possibly. In September 2026 its owners were reported to be working with Rothschild on a sale that could value it at around £500 million, after interest from other restaurant companies and investment firms. Nothing had been agreed when we checked, and a sale is not certain.

Is PizzaExpress the same as Pizza Hut?

No. They are separate chains with separate owners, and no Pizza Hut company appears anywhere in the PizzaExpress group.

Last checked 29 September 2026. This article uses the Companies House records and persons-with-significant-control registers for PizzaExpress (Restaurants) Limited (company 02805490), PizzaExpress Limited (01404552), PizzaExpress Operations Limited (04836955), PizzaExpress Group Limited (09130140) and PizzaExpress Financing 2 plc (09119629); PizzaExpress Financing 2 plc's accounts for the year to 28 December 2025 and PizzaExpress (Restaurants) Limited's accounts for the year to 29 December 2024, including their parent-company notes; Wheel Bidco Limited's annual report for 2020; the group's April 2025 announcement of its bond extension and new equity; Cinven's announcement of the 2014 sale to Hony Capital; press reporting of the 2020 restructuring and the creditors who led it, of the reported sale process in September 2026 and of the group's 2025 results; and PizzaExpress's own account of Peter Boizot and its investor pages. What is not claimed: the exact shareholdings in Wheel Topco, or whether H.I.G. Capital or Hony still hold any shares; why the control register has shown no registrable person since June 2024; the group's profit or loss for 2025; an exact current restaurant count, since the investor page is undated; and the outcome of any sale. If you spot something that needs correcting, email Highstreett and we will review it.