Inside track

What business is it in? PizzaExpress is a pizza restaurant chain founded in the swinging sixties. Today it has 308 restaurants in the UK and serves more than 16 million customers each year.

What brands does it operate? The company itself has just the main brand, but in 2003 it was bought by TDR Capital and Capricorn Ventures, which owns chicken chain Nando's as well as Samuel and Adam Kaye's Ask Central and Zizzi pizza chains.

Where is its head office and area of operation? Restaurant support is in Uxbridge, Middlesex. PizzaExpress has a presence in major towns and cities across the UK, with more than 100 restaurants within the M25.

What sort of employer is it? The company has more than 7,000 employees and runs hands-on and course-led training programmes for them. For managerial positions, contact careers@pizzaexpress.com or post your CV to Fran Horne, Recruitment manager, PizzaExpress, 1 Union Business Park, Florence Way, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 2LS. For all other positions, apply to individual restaurants. The company has salary bands, and assistant managers earn between £16,000 and £20,000 plus 20% performance-related bonus; deputy managers earn £19,000 to £21,000 plus 25% bonus; and restaurant managers can expect to land £17,500 to £30,000 plus 30% bonus.

How does the future look? The company is currently undertaking a major refurbishment of all its restaurants to reinvigorate the portfolio.

Did you know…?
In 1948 Peter Boizot tasted his first pizza in Florence, and in the 1960s imported a pizza oven all the way from Rome - with a guy to operate it - to install in his first restaurant in London's Wardour Street. The company grew to 64 managed and franchised units and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1993. This enabled it to buy back the franchised restaurants and take tighter control over branding.

Not to be confused with… Pizza Hut, which has more than 100 company-owned units as well as franchised take-away outlets and is owned by leisure giant Whitbread.