Gordon Ramsay hit by £3.4m loss at restaurant empire

GORDON RAMSAY’S restaurant empire has suffered a £3.4m loss as it embarks on a major expansion.

Losses at the celebrity chef ’s company, which includes the three-star Michelin restaurant bearing his name in Chelsea, west London, more than tripled in the year to Aug 27 compared with almost £1.1m a year earlier.

It came despite a 21pc increase in sales to almost £96m during the period, latest accounts showed.

Founded by Ramsay in 1998, the group is one of the UK’s largest private restaurant companies, with 34 restaurants in the UK and a further 22 overseas under licence. In addition to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, it also owns the Michelin-starred Petrus, three restaurants at the Savoy Hotel in the West End and a string of casual dining sites. The company paid out £4.9m in one-off costs during the year, which was largely driven by opening new restaurants. Ramsay is to open five different restaurants in one skyscraper in London’s Bishopsgate this year.

An Asian-inspired Lucky Cat restaurant on 22 Bishopsgate’s 60th level will be London’s highest restaurant once it is complete, the company said, claiming that the project would create around 300 jobs in total.

The company also warned over the potential impact of geopolitical tensions on the wider industry.

The company said: “The UK economy continues to see significant impacts and risks arising from geo-political issues, with international tensions and wars across the Middle East, Asia and Europe, together with global supply chain challenges and inflationary pressures impacting commodity, food and utility prices for both the group and consumers in general.”