From Bust to Boom: The Rewriting of Italian Casual Dining

In light of Franco Manca’s recent announcement, I have been thinking a lot about pizza. Last year we supported Pizza Pilgrims through its acquisition process, and in truth, the VDD practically wrote itself. Strong margins, great teams, disciplined site selection and top of the class on guest satisfaction. A stark contrast to some of the legacy Italians we all grew up with.

The wider context for the broadly defined Italian segment is stark. Between early 2020 until 2025, Italian and pizza restaurant chains in the UK contracted by around 22%, with more than 700 sites gone. The big high-street names tell the story: Pizza Express down over 100 sites, Prezzo down c.180, ASK Italian down 50, Zizzi down c.30. Jamie's Italian exited entirely, taking c.40 sites with it. Strada all but disappeared. Legacy players that once dominated high streets and shopping centres imploded under the weight of discounting, debt-loading and brand dilution.

The collapse wasn't a reflection of diners turning away from Italian cuisine. If anything, pizza and pasta remain among Britain's most beloved comfort foods. Rather, it was the inevitable unwinding of an over-leveraged, overextended market that had dominated UK casual dining for decades. Growth cuisines (particularly Asian in the UK) inevitably expand at the expense of others, but the Italian contraction was largely a structural reset - a clearing out of debt-burdened portfolios rather than a shift in consumer preference.

Franco Manca

Franco Manca is a somewhat different case. One of the first sourdough pizza challenger brands, offering simple, affordable, artisanal pizzas. At the time of our work, its Margherita was the cheapest on offer among the competitive set - a good 20% less than the average. But some warning signs were there… our analysis back then showed lower consumer advocacy than one might expect. Despite being the cheapest, it was not seen as the best value, with quality perceptions trailing price. The brand’s expansion into supermarket pizzas, alongside the broader rise of at-home sourdough pizza, may also have contributed to further commoditisation of the category. By contrast, Pizza Pilgrims’ more limited move into dough kits (rather than finished pizzas) keeps it in a space that still reinforces the value of fresh, made-to-order product.

From our view, as Franco Manca scaled, it seemed to lose its way - the branding felt more corporate and it lost a sense of authenticity. It later corrected this, but potentially too late. Meanwhile, newer incumbents, also focused on smaller menus and tighter formats with strong value, narrowed its advantage. The challenge is maintaining the artisanal while reaching ubiquity, and sustaining customer love and advocacy – no easy feat. Franco Manca’s retrenchment is a reminder that strong concepts can lose their edge when scale, cost pressure and a loss of identity collide. That said, with 80% sites remaining, this is not an entirely cautionary tale - a strong core of successful locations remains, with supposedly solid underlying demand backing them up. It is a lesson in losing focus as well as a reflection of how pressured the UK market is right now with lack-lustre rates reform, increasing labour costs and comparatively high VAT.

At the time Franco Manca originally stepped into the market, it had a real advantage – simple, artisanal, and materially better value than the incumbents. But in doing so, it also paved the way for a new generation: Pizza Pilgrims, Rudy's, Yard Sale and Zia Lucia. Between them, this challenger Italian cohort has more than doubled in size since 2018, adding well over 100 new sites while large legacy chains were closing doors. Pizza Pilgrims has grown by 12 sites to reach 29; Rudy’s now has 39; Zia Lucia sits at 9; Yard Sale has expanded to 17, with a further expansion plan just announced. Stripped-back menus make for efficient kitchens, simplified training, lower SKU complexity and stronger supplier partnerships. The result is better food at competitive prices - a win-win for business and guest alike.

Pizza Pilgrims

Smaller sites also mean lower rents and access to prime, high-footfall locations that would have been unaffordable for the larger formats of the noughties. You don't need 200 covers when you've designed for high table turns. Pizza Pilgrims can take a 50-seat site in Soho, fit it out with charm and character, and still hit the numbers. Yard Sale follows a different playbook altogether, operating micro sites with minimal covers and an owned delivery fleet. Franco Manca, meanwhile, seems to be rediscovering its identity-returning to its roots, its story, and the simplicity that once made it great.

As a cohort, the majority of these are founder-led, story-driven businesses that have retained their sense of self through scale. Pizza Pilgrims started with two brothers and a van. Rudy's still proofs its dough for 24 hours. Zia Lucia built its offer around four signature doughs - an operational headache on paper, but a brand-defining difference in practice. They've grown with laser focus, and repeating what works, investing in teams, sidestepping discount wars, and resisting the temptation to reinvent themselves and lose their original magic.

What makes this new generation interesting is that they offer a more disciplined, leaner model. The recent investment by L'Osteria (backed by McWin) into Pizza Pilgrims is a bet on integrity - a belief that what's been built is strong enough to travel further without losing its soul. In the end, this new wave isn't rewriting the rules of Italian casual dining. They’re reminding the sector of something it forgot. Do less and do better.