The Entrepreneur Helping Restaurants Weather Energy Headwinds

CEO Monthly heard from Phineas Page, CEO and Founder of Cap Energy, who is on a mission to help restaurants weather energy headwinds.

Where it all started

Phineas grew up as the son of one of the nation’s most prolific restaurateurs. His father has operated over 500 restaurants worldwide over a 40 year career. Phineas spent his childhood playing with the pizzaiolos at PizzaExpress in Kingston Surrey near the family home, a business of which his father was at that point the major franchisee.

Phineas was therefore knee deep in pizza dough, pepperoni and the paper hats that his school friends so prized when they came in to eat with their parents, Phineas treated the pizza chefs like family, and to some extent they were.

The restaurant manager in Kingston, Giles, was actually appointed Phineas’s Godfather, and his father’s business partner Hugh, (who was a friend of the PizzaExpress founder Peter Boizot), made Godfather to Phineas’ elder brother.  It really was a business and brand that was woven into the fabric and the DNA of the Page family.

From that young age, a deep love of the hospitality sector, and the hardworking people who make it happen, started to bubble. Phineas knew that ultimately he wanted to work in or support the industry in some way. After two years at the Hotel and Catering school in Lausanne, Phineas embarked on a career in restaurants. He worked in various roles in many areas of the industry, from pot washer to chef, from restaurant manager to franchise executive, he continually broadened his knowledge base.

The origins of Cap Energy

Fast forward to 2025 and Phineas is now the founder of Cap Energy, a successful startup which he has built to help restaurateurs weather the significant energy cost increases that are now an unavoidable and permanent challenge.

Cap Energy is a software and hardware solution which enables real-time updates on restaurateurs carbon footprint and their property’s energy usage.

From the money they would save, for example by switching on their pizza ovens an hour later, to the cost of heating, ventilation or air conditioning left on overnight, Cap’s software shows in real time where energy and costs can be saved, at a granular appliance level.

Cap Energy’s impact

Cap Energy is now 2 years old and is being used by 700 restaurants and businesses across the UK, Europe and the USA, including many familiar names such as Hawksmoor, Franco Manca, Alberts Schloss and Wasabi.

Customers save an average of 12% of their costs, and as much as 20% across many sites.

Phineas says: “After Brexit, Covid, and all of the challenges that the restaurant and hospitality sector has faced in the past decade, I’m determined that the energy crisis we now face will not crush the industry any further. It’s an industry I’m passionate about, that I grew up in, and I am proud that we have developed a solution that can really help restaurateurs weather the storm.”

“The hospitality industry provides the places that we celebrate our birthdays, anniversaries and milestones – we cannot allow the spiralling price of energy to take that away.”