Long-standing UK restaurant chain goes bust as sector reels

Well-known food and retail chains in Britain are calling in bankruptcy administrators and struggling to pay bills after the government…

Well-known food and retail chains in Britain are calling in bankruptcy administrators and struggling to pay bills after the government ordered shops and restaurants closed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Carluccio’s, a restaurant chain that served Italian fare in the U.K. for the best part of three decades, said Monday that it had gone into administration, a form of bankruptcy, less than two weeks after the government shut down all restaurants in the face of the pandemic.

The collapse of Carluccio’s, which began life in central London in 1991 and expanded to 71 restaurants across the U.K., puts around 2,000 jobs at risk.