Staff at a Swindon pizza restaurant were shocked on Sunday lunchtime after allegedly receiving a text message telling them they no longer had jobs.

Dough&Co Pizza restaurant at the Swindon retail area opened on December 15, 2021, but closed suddenly at the weekend with staff being told via WhatsApp that morning.

The Google page for the store now lists it as permanently closed, and it has also been removed from the Dough&Co website, alongside the Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Hanley stores, but it is still running 12 restaurants, including one in Trowbridge.  

It is believed 22 members of staff who were working there now find themselves jobless just weeks before Christmas.

Swindon Advertiser:

A WhatsApp message seen by the Adver apparently to staff at the eatery said: "It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that this morning I have found out that the Swindon restaurant and some of the other sites are being closed with immediate effect.

"I honestly don't know what to say right now, I am sorry to break this news to you."

Workers have reported that their personal belongings including house keys and AirPods had been left inside the now-locked building and they could no longer get in.  

The message to staff said they would be paid for "hours completed" and that staff should be able to retrieve their property next week.

But it was unable to answer further questions about the holiday and being paid the legally mandated notice period.

After some back and forth including several angry messages, a senior member of the company said employees would receive the notice period pay they were entitled to, and would receive their accrued holiday pay before adding that he'd take further questions in private. 

In October the restaurant was told to improve after being downgraded from a five-star food hygiene rating to two stars. 

The company refused to talk to the Adver, saying 'do not contact us again' when it requested a comment over the news.

The independent wood-fired pizza restaurant chain is the brainchild of CEO Chris Sharman.

At the time of the Swindon opening almost exactly a year ago, he said he was really excited by the venture.

"It's the first one that we're opening in the South West so we're hoping for great things from it.

"We really liked the location and the unit at Regent Circus, it's the biggest restaurant we've opened to date."

Dough and Co had taken over from a similarly ill-fated pizza restaurant chain Prezzo, which had closed earlier in 2021.

The opening was to be followed by similar branches in the South West in Frome and Trowbridge.