Bankrupt pizza restaurant chain closes more popular locations | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Competition in the pizza restaurant sector has grown over the last two years, with the total number of dining locations increasing by almost 1% from 2023 to 2024 and the number of businesses reaching 74,077 last year, according to data firm Statista.

As the pizza sector grows, so do all of the economic challenges that can prevent many businesses from achieving success. Restaurant owners have faced rising labor and food costs, driven by inflation that has cut deeply into their profits.

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Food costs increased by an average of 29%, and labor costs rose by 31% from 2019 to 2024, according to the National Restaurant Association. Menu prices followed that trend, as average prices increased by 27.2% from February 2020 to June 2024.

The restaurant industry doesn’t have any statistics for 2025 yet, but the National Restaurant Association projected that the industry would add 200,000 new jobs to bring total restaurant employment to 15.9 million by year-end. Sales were expected to reach $1.5 billion, according to a Feb. 6, 2025, State of the Restaurant Industry Report.

However, that report was released about 2-1/2 weeks after President Trump became President, and there had not yet been any impact from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and President Trump’s tariffs.

Financial distress forces pizza operator to sell locations

In 2024, financial distress forced several franchisees of major pizza chains to file for bankruptcy protection and sell or close locations. Among the franchisees was huge Pizza Hut operator EYM Pizza L.P., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2024 and sold 77 of its restaurants at a bankruptcy auction.

In some cases, franchisees decided to close locations and did not file for bankruptcy.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, the largest franchisee of the global pizza chain, in February 2025 said it will shut down 205 low-performing locations, which will include 172 units in Japan “to sharpen market focus and improve profitability.”

Bertucci’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Bertucci’s closes several restaurants in bankruptcy

Also facing distress was iconic East Coast pizza chain Bertucci’s Restaurants LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the third time in seven years on April 24 and closed several locations in the week that it filed its petition.

Bertucci’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta operated 31 locations when it last filed for bankruptcy in December 2022 and closed 15 units before filing its most recent petition. Bertucci’s filed for bankruptcy the first time, seeking to sell its assets in April 2018, Nation’s Restaurant News reported.

More bankruptcies:

The debtor was operating 16 restaurants in its chain when it filed for bankruptcy on April 24, according to its website. It had 10 restaurants in Massachusetts, two in Maryland, and one location each in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, and Virginia.

After filing its latest bankruptcy petition on April 24, the pizza chain’s website still showed 16 locations, but the website adjusted to show 15 locations in the days after the filing.

The company closed five restaurants in Massachusetts, one in Rhode Island, and one in Maryland in the days leading up to its bankruptcy filing, Restaurant Dive reported.

Bertucci’s, however, followed through with the rollout of its new Pronto concept at its downtown Boston location at 22 Tremont Street on April 23, just before filing its petition.

The Pronto Tremont fast-casual location, the first of its kind in the chain, is “designed for busy city life, built around speed, and fired in our signature brick oven,” the restaurant’s website revealed. The new restaurant is a take-out location, where guests place an order at the counter or online and take their food to go.

Bertucci’s features a large variety of pizzas, Tuscan chicken wings, soups, and fresh-baked focaccia sandwiches. The restaurant also features a morning menu from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., featuring such items as the croast, a toasted croissant with smashed avocado and fried egg, or a bacon, egg, and cheese pizza.