Legendary regional pizza chain closes distressed locations | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The pizza dining concept is one of the most competitive in the restaurant sector.

The total number of pizza dining locations increased by almost 1% from 2023 to 2024, and the number of businesses reached 74,077 last year, according to data firm Statista.

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Increased food and labor costs, spurred by rising inflation, have taken their toll on the pizza dining industry. The average cost of food increased by 29%, and labor costs rose by 31% from 2019 to 2024, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Menu prices had a similar increase, as average prices rose by 27.2% from February 2020 to June 2024.

Competition and rising costs have had a lethal effect on pizza restaurants, and many establishments are still suffering from the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some restaurant chains that can’t escape the financial distress are forced to close locations and sometimes file for bankruptcy, such as East Coast pizza chain Bertucci’s Restaurants, which has filed for Chapter 11 protection three times in seven years.

Bertucci’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the first time in April 2018 to sell its assets, and it operated 31 restaurants when it filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2022. Bertucci’s filed for bankruptcy a third time on April 24, 2025, and had 15 remaining restaurants in its chain when it filed.

Pizza franchises close restaurants

Several franchisees of major pizza chains have also filed for bankruptcy protection to sell or close locations. Huge Pizza Hut operator EYM Pizza L.P. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2024 and sold 77 of its restaurants at a bankruptcy auction.

Another Domino’s Pizza franchisee in Yorba Linda, Calif., People First Pizza Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its business, facing over $500,000 in disputed claims. The franchisee plans to continue operating the restaurant.

For some pizza restaurants, closing locations without filing for bankruptcy is their best option.

Buddy’s Pizza has closed three locations in the last three years.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Buddy’s Pizza closes locations

Legendary Buddy’s Pizza, which claims to have invented the iconic square-shaped Detroit-style pizza, has closed its Portage, Mich., location, suffering lingering effects from the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, staffing shortages, and rising costs of inflation, Mlive.com reported.

The Portage location, which opened during the Covid-19 pandemic in July 2020, closed on May 13, as it reportedly could not overcome all of its economic challenges.

More closings:

The location was not the only Buddy’s Pizza restaurant to shut down since the pandemic devastated the restaurant industry beginning in 2020.

The Farmington Hills, Mich.-based pizza chain on July 5, 2024, closed its Walker, Mich., location after opening the store in March 2023, WZZM TV-13 reported at the time.

Buddy’s almost two years earlier, also closed its Delta Township location on West Saginaw Highway in September 2022 after operating that restaurant for a little over two years, the Lansing State Journal reported at the time.

Buddy’s originally planned to open the Lansing-area restaurant in March 2020, but the pandemic delayed the opening to July 2020. The restaurant consolidated its operations with its Okemos, Mich., location.

Buddy’s Pizza currently operates 15 full-service pizza restaurants throughout Michigan, and another five carry-out only locations.

Detroit-style pizza traces its roots back to Buddy’s Pizza founder Gus Guerra, who in 1946 introduced the new style of pizza at his Buddy’s Rendezvous restaurant in Detroit, according to Michigan.org.