Jamie Oliver sees restaurant collapse eat into profits

Jamie Oliver’s wider business took a financial hit in 2019 due to the collapse of his UK restaurant empire.

Pre-tax profits across the chef’s companies, which include his TV, book and licensing arms, dropped 9% to £7.1m in 2019 with turnover of £38.8m.

This was compared to profits of £7.8m in 2018 on turnover of £40.9m.

Documents show the chef’s holding company acted as financier for the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group in the first half of 2019, loaning millions to keep the business afloat.

This included £6.7m to prop up the restaurant business and £2.58m to cover expenses related to administration, including employee wage costs.

It caused pre-tax profits at Jamie Oliver Holdings Ltd to halve to £4.1m with a turnover of £30m.

This was down from pre-tax profits of £8.8m in 2018 on a turnover of £28.8m.

The Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group entered administration in May 2019 with the closure of 22 restaurants. Around 1,000 jobs were lost across the Jamie’s Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen London brands.

Documents show Oliver previously loaned £4.8m to the restaurant arm in 2018.

The only restaurants from the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group which survived the administration were three sites at Gatwick Airport, which were bought by SSP.

Oliver signed a 10-year deal with contract caterer Aramark in 2018 and has since opened Jamie's Delis at Aberdeen Robert Gordon University and at JP Morgan's offices in Dublin.

Documents show the chef's international franchise restaurants 'performed strongly' , ending 2019 with 69 restaurants in 26 countries operating with 19 partners.

The restaurant business also opened a Jamie Oliver Cookery School in London in November 2019, sales of which exceeded expectations in the first weeks of trading.