Last week it was Vince Cable trying to tell us that Brexit was depriving Wimbledon spectators of their strawberries – swiftly denied by the All England Club. This week it is the turn of pizza chain Franco Manca to try to scare us of the consequences of Brexit. Announcing the company’s results, chairman David Page said, in comments prominently reported in the pro-EU Financial Times: “The long-term Brexit impact is unknown. It is, however, already affecting the availability of skilled European restaurant staff”. In other words: your pizza is under threat from your silly vote to leave the EU.
Brexit hasn’t appeared to hit the company’s bottom line, however. Revenue of the chain’s parent company was up 41 per cent to £41.2 million. Profits were up by 170 per cent. Moreover, the firm has managed to open 13 new restaurants during the past year.
If the chain is discovering that the well of fully-trained pizza chefs isn’t quite bottomless it would hardly be surprising.
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