Pizza Hut Franchisee DC London Pie Collapses Into Administration, Closing 68 UK Restaurants

DC London Pie Ltd, the operator of more than 130 Pizza Hut restaurants across the UK, has entered administration less than a year after acquiring the chain from insolvency, forcing the closure of 68 restaurants and 11 delivery sites and resulting in over 1,200 job losses.

FTI Consulting’s Lindsay Hallam, Matthew Callaghan and Christopher Bennett were appointed joint administrators on 20 October following a period of mounting financial pressure within the UK’s casual dining sector. The administrators confirmed that global franchisor Yum! Brands, which owns the Pizza Hut trademark, has reached a deal to take back control of 64 restaurants—preserving 1,276 jobs and ensuring continued operations under the Pizza Hut brand.

The collapse of DC London Pie underscores the ongoing distress in the UK’s mid-market dining industry, where rising input costs, high rents, and sluggish consumer spending have driven repeated rounds of restructurings since the pandemic. Despite a post-lockdown rebound in sales volumes, inflationary pressures and changing dining habits have eroded profitability for operators reliant on high fixed overheads.

DC London Pie, backed by European investors with franchise holdings in Sweden and Denmark, acquired Pizza Hut’s UK dine-in portfolio in January 2025 after the previous franchisee’s administration. But the turnaround effort faltered amid falling customer traffic and continued debt obligations tied to the original acquisition. The company reportedly explored a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) earlier in the summer before opting for administration as trading conditions worsened.

FTI said its immediate priority is to facilitate an orderly transition of the viable restaurants to Yum! Brands and to assist affected staff at shuttered locations.