The owner of three pizza restaurants has taken them off the market - and is staging a huge discount to mark its first anniversary.

Matthew Oliver, along with business partner Dominik Rog, are the current franchise operators of the Bolton, Bury and Rochdale Fireaway premises.

In March, Matthew announced he was selling the Fireaway restaurants to open an Italian eaterie in Ramsbottom.

Matthew has since announced that while he is still opening the Ramsbottom restaurant, he will continue to run the  Fireaway diners.

He said: “I have decided against selling the Fireaway restaurant, and I’ve had a change of heart.

The Bolton News:

“I was going to sell them to raise capital but now I do not need to do that.

“I am opening a restaurant still so everything is as it was, but I do not need to raise as much as I thought I needed in the end.”

Fireaway’s Bolton town centre site has been open for a year and offers Neapolitan pizza with halal available.

Matthew said: “It just means that I need to expand my management team to help me, so I am currently recruiting for an executive chef.

“I do not work at any of the sites, but I will be overseeing everything.

“We had quite a lot of interest, but I did not feel that we had the right person for it, but if I were to sell it now, it would have to be someone who was going to run it.

“But we were attracting investors only.”

Matthew is happy to be keeping the business to serve the people of Bolton and is also celebrating the first year anniversary on Friday, June 9 by offering £5 pizza all day.

He said: “I am 100 percent happy with the decision and it will build a portfolio for my businesses.

“I’m still looking forward to the restaurant opening and it looks to be two months before we can open.

“And for our one-year anniversary at FireAway, we’re going to be selling pizza for £5 to celebrate a year.

“It’s been good, we have managed to grow well especially since there is a lot of competition in Bolton for takeaways but we are getting people come in.”