Quality designed to get a slice of the action

01 January 2000
Quality designed to get a slice of the action

A new Pizza Express opened in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in January. Its success at a dead time of year has taken everyone, including the confident and experienced management, by surprise.

A budgeted revenue of £4,000 a week turned into an actual take of £14,000 a week in the space of just one month. On weekend evenings there are queues, as there were on St Valentine's Day three weeks after the outlet opened.

This is all the more surprising because this end of the High Street is not notable for its buzz or its retailing successes. Many shops lie empty and others have opened and closed within a short time.

The Victoria Place development - boasting national retail outlets such as Marks & Spencer, WH Smith, Boots and Fenwick's - is at the other end of town. Only the proximity of the Pantiles tourist attraction is an obvious advantage, but that is more the case in summer than in winter.

The restaurant occupies the former premises of a National Westminster Bank branch, built in 1914 in the familiar neo-Georgian style that people have come to take for granted.

The conversion from a dull, neglected building into a light, modern-looking property is impressive. The convex central window panes, formerly frosted, are now clear, with the outer frames in blue-tinted glass. Passers-by can see in through the magnificent windows and customers can watch the world go by. The original high-corniced ceiling has been preserved and spotlights are directed on to the centre of tables.

The place looks good. But what is more impressive, if you are in the restaurant business, is its self-assurance. There is - and was from the start - a sense that everything has been thought through and is in working order.

What most newcomers forget when designing a restaurant or expanding existing premises, is the need for space in and around the kitchen and serving area. Products have to come into the premises and waste has to go out without inconveniencing customers, cooks or waiting staff.

The last to forget such details are chains such as PizzaExpress, but it is hard for someone not in the business to appreciate the immense knowledge, accumulated purchasing power, design skills and training ability required to open a 90-seat restaurant and make it a success from the start.

It was clear no one doubted the quality of the food. As we watched the restaurant fill up in the first week, it was obvious that the name and reputation of the brand helped to bring in the customers.

Pizza popularity

It is hard to imagine a time when you couldn't find a pizza in this country. Yet when Peter Boizot, who founded the group, opened the first Pizza Express in 1965, only visitors to Italy had encountered pizza. Since 1965, pizza has become part of British gastronomic history - from the late Bob Payton's deep-dish version, which came to London from Sicily via Chicago, to the fanciful productions laden with goodies inspired by chefs such as Wolfgang Puck in California. No longer an item of Mediterranean peasant food, the pizza has leapt every national and cultural boundary, so that you can now find in supermarkets, as I did the other day, a product described as a chicken tikka pizza.

The remarkable thing about PizzaExpress is that in its 30-year history, including its new life as a plc, it has stuck to its original menu formula based on pizza styles in Italy. The pizza is served freshly baked and hot from the oven. Its quality, actual and perceived, is above that of standard, serve-by-the-slice, fast-food pizza.

On top of that, the sophisticated decor of the outlets helps to create the sense of occasion that customers want, and to achieve an average spend of £8 a head.

The new Tunbridge Wells branch is just one of several PizzaExpress outlets planned or recently opened. It is part of Pizza Express's current energetic policy of expansion. The figures speak for themselves. The latest half-yearly turnover figure of £19.5m for the period to 31 December is 36% up on the previous year. Profit before tax is also up 36% to £4.15m for the same six-month period.

PizzaExpress is professional and worth watching. So is the corner of Tunbridge Wells's High Street. Just opposite the new Pizza Express is another former bank premises, which has been empty for more than a year. It is rumoured that another restaurant chain - a brasserie group in the same sector of the market - has acquired it. Who says we're not becoming a café society - and a competitive one at that?

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