AN ITALIAN restaurant in Winchester has closed its doors for good.

Prezzo, on Jewry Street, is just one of 46 closures announced by the Italian restaurant group. The closures, which affect 810 workers, come after utility costs rocketed by more-than double.

It said the shake-up will impact a raft of sites where footfall is still below pre-pandemic levels and leave more restaurants in busier shopping destinations such as retail parks or tourist hot spots.

This follows the closure of several city centre food businesses including Republic of Pizza and Desserts on the High Street. It is unclear whether it will reopen and has been unavailable for comment.

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Rawberry on St George's Street also closed its doors to be replaced by NAAFI.

A sign in the window of the restaurant says: “We’re sorry, but we will be permanently closing from Monday, April 24.

“Thank you for your support over the years. We hope to see you at one of our other restaurants.”

Dean Challenger, chief executive of Prezzo, said: “The last three years have been some of the hardest times I have ever seen for the high street and I’m extremely proud of the way our colleagues have retained Prezzo’s position as an appealing, trusted, great value food and drink experience.

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“But the reality is that the cost-of-living crisis, the changing face of the high street and soaring inflation has made it impossible to keep all our restaurants operating profitably. That is why we have made the difficult decision to close 46 sites where the post-Covid recovery has proved harder than we had hoped.

“We will work to find suitable alternative roles in other Prezzo restaurants for all those hard-working colleagues impacted by the announcement and support those who cannot be accommodated in finding new opportunities.

“We believe the tough decisions we are making today will ensure Prezzo can continue serving communities with high-quality, accessible Italian-inspired meals for many more years to come.”