Bella Italia (formerly known as Bella Pasta) is a chain of over 90

restaurants A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

offering meals inspired by

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine (, ) is a Mediterranean cuisine David 1988, Introduction, pp.101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and later spread around the world together with wave ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and Ireland. The chain is part of The Big Table Group, which also owns Café Rouge and Las Iguanas.

History

Bella Italia started life as two small restaurant chains - Pastificio and

Pizzaland Pizzaland was a chain of pizza restaurants owned by Associated Newspapers and then by United Biscuits. In the early 1990s, Pizza Hut and Pizzaland were regarded as the largest pizza eateries in Britain; UK business ceased in 1996. International ...

- which were part of the

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to for ...

group. In 1990, Michael Guthrie (former Chairman of

Mecca Leisure Group Mecca Leisure Group (also known as Mecca Leisure Ltd, Mecca Ltd, and Mecca Dance Ltd) was a British business that ran nightclubs, hotels, theme parks, bingo parlours and Hard Rock Cafes. During the 1960s, Mecca was a centre of entertainment wit ...

) formed BrightReasons and bought the Pizzaland and Pastificio chains from Grand Metropolitan for £20m in February 1991, rebranding Pastificio to Bella Pasta in the process. In February 1993, BrightReasons purchased 43 Pizza Piazza and Prima Pasta restaurants from

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distrib ...

for £20.25m, bringing their total number of restaurants to 165. In May 1994, BrightReasons started preparing for a stock market flotation, and the group was expected to be valued at between £70m-£100m. This was subsequently announced in September, however, in November 1994, the planned flotation was postponed. In November 1996, BrightReasons was put up for sale after suffering a particularly tough trading period in 1995. In November 1996, BrightReasons was acquired by

Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...

for £46m, but was sold off less than six years later for £25m to Tragus Holdings (later renamed Casual Dining Group). In December 2002, the Bella Pasta chain was rebranded as Bella Italia and the first fully branded restaurant opened in Leeds. In September 2012, Bella Italia joined the

Nectar loyalty card Nectar is a loyalty card scheme in the United Kingdom run by Nectar 360 Ltd, a company wholly owned by Sainsbury's. The scheme is the largest in the United Kingdom, and comprises a number of partner companies including Sainsbury's, Esso and eBay. ...

reward scheme as a redemption partner. In September 2013, Bella Italia began a partnership with the Gourmet Society, offering their members discounts on production of a Gourmet Society restaurant discount card. In light of the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, in May 2020 Bella Italia's owner Casual Dining Group announced that it was working with advisors on next steps for the overall business as a prudent measure to protect the company whilst planning for the future. In July 2020, Casual Dining Group was placed into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

with 35 Bella Italia outlets set to close. Branches in Plymouth, Newbury and Luton Airport permanently closed as administrators began selling off the group's assets.

Cuisine

The menu combines pizza and pasta, which is their main focus, with a range of grill and speciality dishes. The food is complemented by some

Italian wine Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine, with an area of under vineyard cultivation, and contributing a 2013–2017 annual average of 48.3 million hl of wine. In 2018 Italy accounted fo ...

s - many from smaller producers - beers and soft drinks.

Tipping and minimum wage

In 2009 the company was found to be threatening to dismiss waiting staff who do not get customers to pay tips on credit cards rather than in cash. Credit card tips were used by the company to subsidise wages (which are usually the legal minimum) whereas cash tips go directly to waiting staff. In line with changes to tipping legislation, which came into effect on 1 October 2009, Tragus Ltd reviewed and updated its policies to ensure that all tips, after a 10% deduction for administrative and other costs paid by credit or debit card, were distributed through the payroll system to restaurant staff. In 2015, Bella Italia amended its policy to ensure all employees are permitted to keep all tips and service charges paid in cash and are free to share their tips with colleagues if they so wish. Their employees are required to declare the income generated from cash tips to HM Revenue & Customs for tax purposes. When tips or service charges are paid for by credit card or debit card, the restaurant does take a 2.5% administration charge to cover bank fees before distributing the remainder in full to employees. All restaurant employees are paid tips in addition to the National Minimum Wage.

Environmental record

In November 2015 the chain received the worst rating of all restaurants surveyed in an assessment of the sustainability of its seafood. After working closely with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Bella Italia came second in Fish2Fork's analysis of the fish sourcing policies of high street restaurants in 2017.

Philanthropy

In June 2012, Bella Italia began officially supporting

The Children's Society The Children's Society, formally the Church of England Children's Society, is a United Kingdom national children's charity (registered No. 221124) allied to the Church of England. The charity's two governing objectives are to: # directly improv ...

by donating some of the profit from a selected dish on the menu to the charity. In 2013, Bella Italia officially partnered with

Comic Relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

, the British charity founded in 1985 that aims to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people."

References

External links

* * {{UK Food Restaurant groups in the United Kingdom Italian restaurants Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom