Gordon Ramsay Group plans further expansion after sales bounce

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant group is planning further expansion in the UK and overseas off the back of a bumper year of trading.

The chef’s business, which runs 36 UK restaurants and 14 licensed locations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, saw turnover triple to £78.9m in the year to 28 August 2022.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation rose to £6.2m, up from a £1.1m loss in 2021, while pre-tax losses narrowed to £1.06m, down from a £6.8m loss in 2021.

The group’s UK portfolio includes three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London as well as casual dining brands Bread Street Kitchen and Gordon Ramsay Plane Food at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5.

During the year, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants received £20,000 through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and £133,000 in local government grants.

The company secured new financing in May 2022 and invested £8.6m into opening new restaurants and maintaining its existing sites.

It opened seven new restaurants during the year, including two upmarket sites at the Savoy hotel in London and Bread Street Kitchen locations in Edinburgh and Liverpool.

The Savoy Grill, which Ramsay has run at the London hotel since 2003, reopened in April following a major two-month refurbishment and the group purchased the Pizza East business in London’s Shoreditch from Soho House this year.

The chef is also set to open his Asian-inspired Lucky Cat restaurant in Manchester this month, four years after the original Mayfair launch sparked accusations of cultural appropriation, which Ramsay rejected.

Group director Andy Wenlock said the Gordon Ramsay Academy cooking school, which opened its first site in Woking, Surrey in 2021, was seen as a "scalable asset" in the UK and overseas, and a location is currently being sought in Edinburgh.

International openings during the year included the launch of Gordon Ramsay Burger and Street Pizza in Seoul, a Street Pizza in Dubai, and openings in Kuala Lumpur and at Hamad International Airport in Qatar.

In 2020, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants said it planned to open up to 50 sites across the UK by 2025.

“The group remains committed to and on course with its growth strategy both in the UK and internationally,” Wenlock wrote in the 2022 accounts.

As the group expands, Wenlock said it was “identifying sites requiring improved performance or alternative uses”.

“During the period this has resulted in the decision to impair three additional sites alongside being able to reduce expected future cashflows for certain sites with onerous lease provisions,” he wrote.

Wenlock said the business would be able to keep trading even if the cost of living crisis led to a 20% drop in sales.

A major shareholder has confirmed financial support would be provided to the business in the event of such a downturn.