Cooking up a storm

When David Page stands up in front of an audience of investment analysts, he likes to remember his training as a primary school teacher. He knows he can afford to be jovial and off the cuff while still being serious, as long as he never makes a promise he cannot keep. Just like a class of kids, the trust of investors is almost impossible to regain after it has been lost.

David Page

So far, Page has managed to keep everybody in line in the City as he seeks to repeat his trailblazing success of taking Pizza Express into the FTSE 250 by playing a leading role in the consolidation of other cuisines, notably Greek and Indian, into national chains.

His earlier career moves were less assured. He grew up in Wimbledon and was educated by the Jesuits, until he was expelled in the summer of ‘68 for sneaking off to lie by the pool at a friend’s house. He then trained as a cartographer, but was sacked for having long hair and not wearing a tie. After losing his next job in a neurology unit for taking life too easy, Page concluded that his Jesuit upbringing might not suit him for a life in business, so he signed up for three years at a teacher training college. He loved it, only to find that standing up in front of a class of unruly 11-year-olds was harder work than he’d imagined.

However, while at college, he had paid his bar bill by working as a kitchen porter at Pizza Express. He moved up to waiter and, when the franchisor decided to open a new branch in Kingston in 1977, Page was offered the job as manager on double his teacher’s salary. He jumped at the chance. By 1981, Page was ready to take out a second mortgage and open his own franchise in Chiswick. It took off and in the next ten years he opened another nine restaurants around London and the M25.

For Page, it was a golden time because Pizza Express had the high street to itself. Until Café Rouge opened in 1989, it was the only middle class casual-dining chain available and was perfectly placed to pick up on the trend for families wanting to eat out more often. Pizza Express’ founder, Peter Boizot, had spent 15 years living in Italy. ‘He appreciated good service and knew that food in the UK was appalling, so brought in chefs and suppliers from Italy,’ says Page.

By 1992, when there was more competition in a tough economic climate, Boizot decided to sell up. Page did not want to become a franchisee for a large corporation and decided to engineer his own bid for Pizza Express, which was on the market for £13 million, by reversing into a listed shell company called Star Computers. It was sitting on £2 million and had two young directors, Luke Johnson and Hugh Osmond, both fellow trailblazers in the making. ‘Back then they didn’t have any money at all,’ reflects Page. ‘I taught them all they’ve ever forgotten.’

For the next ten years the three of them worked together and took Pizza Express from 25 restaurants to 300 and a listing. It was at this point that the business seemed to lose its pep. He says: ‘Corporate governance becomes more onerous and independent non-execs were appointed who may not have had a full understanding of the business.
‘In addition, all the options that had been put in place had been exercised and cashed in. We wanted to re-energise everybody in the company, but we found it difficult to create incentives to grow as fast as we had over the last ten years. The whole point of working began to lose its attraction.’

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