Jamie Oliver’s last remaining UK restaurants have been saved from closure, after being snapped up by food-to-go specialist SSP Group.
The three outlets at Gatwick Airport – Jamie Oliver’s Diner, Jamie’s Italian and Jamie’s Coffee Lounge – have been bought out of administration by the owner of Upper Crust and Ritazza.
READ MORE: 1,300 jobs at risk as Jamie's Italian on brink of administration
The rescue deal, which has saved 250 jobs, comes three weeks after administrators closed the other 22 of the celebrity chef’s 25 restaurants.
Insolvency specialists at KPMG closed the restaurants, leading to around 1,000 redundancies, after investment could not be secured to keep them trading.
The celebrity chef said he was “devastated” by the collapse of his restaurant business, which included Jamie’s Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen.
Mr Oliver offered £4 million to support a last-minute search for funds to save the chain, but with “no investment forthcoming” and in light of difficult trading conditions, administrators were drafted in.
KPMG has now confirmed that SSP has agreed to take over operations at the remaining Gatwick sites, with staff transferring to the travel food specialists.
The acquired restaurants will add to the portfolio of 12 international Jamie Oliver restaurants the company currently operates – in Austria, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.
Will Wright, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with SSP Group, which will see the three Jamie Oliver outlets at Gatwick Airport continue to trade, safeguarding a significant number of jobs.”
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon and Jamie Oliver shouldn't face scorn for tackling obesity crisis
Simon Smith, chief executive of SSP Group, said: “We’re delighted to be expanding our partnership with Jamie Oliver, especially as we already operate 12 Jamie Oliver units in Austria, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, and have further units planned in Brazil and Bahrain.
“Jamie’s cafes and restaurants are much loved by customers all around the world, so we’re very excited to be adding the brand to our UK portfolio and increasing our presence at Gatwick Airport.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here