Falling sales see Square Pie into administration

Falling trade and rising rents, food and staffing costs have sadly seen Pierate Recommended pie maker Square Pie go into administration, and with that the sad loss of 50 pie jobs in its five restaurants in London and Birmingham.

While it has to be admitted that the Birmingham store was never regularly frequented by Pierateer RAS, the loss of yet another pie shop in the city (following the closure of Urban Pie a few years ago) is hard to swallow. It has to be asked "What is happening to all our pie shops?", with these closures following on from a fall in the number of traditional London Pie and Mash shops over the last few years as highlighted by fellow pie fanatics and friends of the blog the Pie n Mash Club, who have documented all the closed pie and mash shops.

The last we'll see of the Square Pie box

It was only 18 months ago that the new Square Pie shop opened in Birmingham to great fanfare, with over 1,000 of you reading our live blogging of the opening in Grand Central. Based above the main New Street train station in the heart of Birmingham, it was great to have an established and Pierate Recommended pie brand such as Square Pie in the centre of the city. Now it appears all will be left is the wholesale business, which sells pies to a number of major supermarkets. You can read more about Square Pie going into administration on the Big Hospitality website.

However all we can really be glad of is that since Square Pie opened their last store, the pie scene has improved in Birmingham with a number of top pies available in local pubs and a new Pieminister store opening. And with 4 London stores closing, we hardly need to remind you that some of our top 10 pies in our 600+ pie rankings are available in London, with MyPie London and Piebury Corner accounting for half of our top 10! Here's hoping we don't hear of any more pie shop closures any time soon, especially with British Pie Week only a few short weeks away!

Grand Central in Birmingham City Centre, which was home to Birmingham's Square Pie shop

For a trip down memory lane, you may want to read when we rated Square Pie as Pierate Recommended as we celebrated eating our 100th rated pie there down in London back in 2012, and in 2013 when we rated their Chicken, Leak and Wiltshire Ham pie at 5.58/7, which was another Pierate Recommended effort.

RAS