Pizza Hut Restaurants CEO Jens Hofma: ‘CVA a necessary evil’

Pizza Hut UK’s company voluntary arrangement (CVA) was a “necessary evil” and has left the business in “a more robust position,” CEO Jens Hofma has said. Speaking at MCA’s the Conversation, Hofma revealed that the business had made several attempts to find an alternative solution to deal with outstanding lockdown rent debts with landlords, but the hostility of some left it with “no other choice” but to turn to a CVA. But with landlord break clauses still a live issue, he added that the business has come up against a number of newer operators “circling the estate” to see if they can “tempt landlords to go for the new kid on the block rather than sticking with tenants who’ve been around for decades.”