JAMIE’S KITCHEN NIGHTMARE
Celeb chef’s restaurants crash putting 1,000 jobs at risk:
MORE than 1,000 workers at Jamie Oliver’s restaurants look set to lose their jobs after his empire suddenly collapsed into administration yesterday.
The celebrity chef revealed administrators from KPMG had been appointed after multimillion-pound losses.
He said he was ‘devastated’ to be shutting down most of his eateries, including Jamie’s Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen.
Shocked staff told of their anger and despair after being sent emails yesterday morning telling them not to bother turning up for work just 30 minutes before the company’s official announcement.
One employee, who asked not be named, said: ‘Email is a pretty cold way to sack your staff. Jamie won’t be the one looking for a job and struggling to pay his bills, it’ll be poor saps like us who worked for him.’
Another worker, chef Colin Roberts, 31, from Walsall, said: ‘Speculation was rife that something was up but when we were told that the company had gone into administration and we’d lost our jobs it was a huge shock.
‘A lot of staff were in tears.’
Earlier this year, dad-of-five Oliver, 43 – married to Jools, 44 – bought a £6million Essex mansion. It came after he closed 12 of his 37 UK restaurants. Yesterday, KPMG released a list of another 22 to shut. They include 20 Jamie’s Italian branches – seven of them in London. His Barbecoa and Fifteen restaurants in the capital will also shut. As many as 1,300 jobs could go.
Three Jamie’s Italian restaurants at Gatwick airport in West Sussex will remain open for now. The Fifteen restaurant in Newquay, Cornwall, is not considered part of the group.
Oliver, who is reportedly worth £240million, is said to have personally pumped £13million into his Italian chain but factors such as rising food and rental costs have proved damaging.
He said: ‘ I’m devastated that our muchloved UK restaurants have gone into administration. I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the staff and our suppliers who have put their hearts and souls into this business over the years. I appreciate how difficult this is for everyone affected.’
Hospitality industry expert Simon Mydlowski, of Yorkshire law firm Gordons, said: ‘A number of suppliers will have been caught unawares here but this is not the first restaurant chain to have suffered and it will not be the last.’
KPMG’s Will Wright said the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group directors had worked hard to stabilise the business but were hit by rising costs and plunging consumer confidence. The priority now was to support those being made redundant, he added.