Whitbread sold Costa to Coca Cola in in 2019 for £3.9 billion so you were close, they also owned a 50% stake in Pizza Hut which they sold in 2006.
Whitbread is not in trouble and made a £300 million net profit last year.
But Whitbread bought it for £19 million in 1995.
Italian Caputo flour is media’d as the best for pizza, it’s on the Amazons
Whitbread has been very clever. They also did Premier Inns
Clearly a good investment.
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Well, it is just a glorified cheese toastie
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Have to say I was in hospital two weeks ago and the food was good. Maybe I was lucky or have low standards, but i’m going back in November and quite looking forward to it. The food that is, not the procedure. I’ll update if I remember. (If I survive 
)
Whitbread always only owned half of the UK franchise of Pizza Hut, the other half was owned by the ultimate owners of Pizza Hut; Yum Brands, the restaurant division of PepsiCo originally. They own KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and various other fast food chains. Whitbread sold their half to Yum late 90s / early 2000s who owned it 100% until 2012ish when they sold the UK restaurant division to private equity, keeping the delivery side in-house. The demise now is as much to do with the classic private equity destruction, and the horrific situation for hospitality over the last 5 years as anything. I think Yum bought them back out of administration after covid so they still own whatever is left of the UK restaurant chain.
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LOL 
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Agree 
We have an Uuni oven we bought 6 or 7 years ago now. Great little thing. We do about 8 - 10 in a batch and then freeze them.
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Plus the erosion of disposable income. Who wants to take their spouse and kids to a “pizza hut” experience for £80? Apart from Andrew, or was that Pizza Express 
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I’ve always been shocked at the price of pizzas in the UK, particularly Pizza Hut, Dominos ect. In Oz they were a cheap and cheerful thing. Even when we last left 10 years ago dominos (we didn’t have a pizza hut close but they were same prices) were about $10 £6 for a large. They did cheap Tuesdays where a small range were only $5. The kids asked for a pizza when we got to the UK and we saw they were something like £20 for the same thing! No way!
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You need to check out the pizza van prices in France, youngest son’s BIL has a van and charges 17E for some of his large pizzas.
Do you not think that 14 euros for a takeaway pizza is expensive?
@NotALot , our local pizza machine prices are similar. I resisted buying pizza from a machine for a long time, but this one is located in the parking lot of our local pizza restaurant, which is only open for lunch, and only on some days. The pizzas are not what I would call great, but they’re decent, and seem to use local ingredients. I walk or run through that lot most mornings, and they’re often in there working, so I think that the pizzas are pretty fresh.
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Gosh never seen one quite that much, but I guess depends on size and fancy ingredients!
I did say to DS2 that if he continues having shoulder pain ect that he should look at doing it instead of electricity / heating!
Same sort of prices around here, not that we get them, we just do our own.
For a made to order, totally fresh local ingredients 33cm pizza? I’m fine with €14.
I could get cheaper, worse pizza if I drove 30 minutes, but I don’t mind paying extra for quality pizza from a local family business.
Very similar prices here for really good van pizzas.
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Both Pizza Hut and Pizza Express are to be avoided. 40 years ago Pizza Express weren’t bad, Pizza Hut pizza is horrid. Some of the vans selling wood fired pizza are quite good. They all depend on how they are bsked