Pranzo Italian, owned and run by Chef Owner Marco Greco, has celebrated its 7th birthday.
Starting life as an Italian lunch bar employing a handful of people, the family-owned restaurant brand has come a long way in a short time. Surviving a period that has seen economic challenges and a global pandemic.
In an industry plagued by challenges and rising pessimism, this seven-year milestone should be celebrated. In 2024, 64% of hospitality businesses had doubts that their business would survive the year. Conversely Marco has done everything but stand still and Pranzo Italian is constantly evolving to encourage growth.
Within seven years, he’s opened three new restaurants, relocated and expanded two of these with another new opening on the horizon.
This new opening will take the Pranzo Italian restaurant tally to four with their York restaurant due to open in the coming weeks.
In February, UK Hospitality reported that with wage and NI rises, Q1 2025 could force 70% of hospitality businesses to reduce their employment figures.
With Pranzo it’s a different story, new restaurants create new jobs.
Pranzo now employs over 140 people. New recruits are invested in too.
Marco said:
As Pranzo grows, our team grows with us, not only in size but knowledge and ability.
Head of training Matt Fenwick oversees training and development ensuring all new team members are immersed in Pranzo’s history and journey. From Marco’s childhood cooking with his Nonna and the style of Calabrese dishes to knowing the wine list inside out.
Development happens inside the kitchen too under Kirk Williams. Promoted after five years with Pranzo, Kirk now overseas menu and skill development working closely with Marco and suppliers to create an impressive homemade pasta and seasonal specials menu.
It’s fair to say this commitment to excellence has cemented Pranzo’s place in the north’s dining scene.
Marco said:
We focus on quality. By using the best ingredients available, we can produce great-tasting dishes, and all our wines are sourced from family-run vineyards in Italy who truly care about every single bottle of wine they produce.
We source ingredients from my hometown in Calabria too and we’re proud to source meat from Yorkshire farms.
Growth has been possible thanks to the support from loyal locals who love the food we make and the Pranzo experience.
It’s always been important to include customers in our journey, and sharing these milestones is all part of it.
This focus on quality and guest experience dished up a 30% increase in turnover in the last financial year.
Chief Operating Officer, Stephen Peace, acknowledges that an evaluation of processes and streamlining their approach has contributed to this growth:
As Pranzo has grown, we’ve brought in good systems to streamline operations. Working closely with industry leading suppliers, these new systems automate the analytical processes we were doing manually before. This automation has freed up time meaning we now have more space to make informed decisions over manual data entry or reporting.
It’s hard to believe it’s only seven years since Pranzo opened its first restaurant in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.
Marco said:
I’m so proud of how far we’ve come.
In 2018, when we opened, it was me and my dad cooking together in the kitchen. I wasn’t sure how our homemade pasta would be received.
Now we’ve got four great locations across Yorkshire. We’re resilient and we’ve stuck to doing the fundamentals well.
