Jamie Oliver lost £25million when his restaurant chain collapsed costing 1,000 jobs and leaving creditors facing £83million losses, report reveals
- Celebrity chef used £1million of personal funds to compensate redundant staff
- His personal holdings company provided flagging Italian chain with £18million
- He also paid out creditors such as HSBC which will suffer £39.4billion in losses
- In May, the eatery chain collapsed and closed 22 of its 23 branches nationwide
The collapse of Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain has burnt an eye-watering £25million hole in the celebrity chef’s pockets.
Creditors which had stumped up funds to keep the flagging business afloat have been partly compensated, but are also estimated to suffer £83million worth of losses.
And Oliver, 44, has dipped into his own personal bank account to pay the wages of roughly 1,000 redundant staff.
The collapse of Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain has burnt an eye-watering £25million hole in the celebrity chef’s (pictured in north London) pockets
Following the closure announcement of 22 of the company’s 23 restaurants in May, anxious employees were seen arriving to work in tears (staff pictured looking rueful)
Following the closure announcement of 22 of the company’s 23 restaurants in May, anxious employees were seen arriving to work in tears.
Jamie Oliver Holdings, the chef’s personal account, supplied an £18.3million secured loans injection to the restaurant business, of which it will only claw back £2million.
Of the creditors, HSBC will shoulder almost half of the total £83million losses after providing Jamie’s Italian with £39.4million worth of secured debt, according to the joint administrators’ report.
Oliver, who made assurances to the bank, has paid HSBC £4.7million.
The TV star founded Jamie’s Italian in 2008 and soon swelled the company’s presence to 40 outlets nationwide
In January he and his wife Jools – with whom he has five children – snapped up a £6million 16th Century mansion in Essex
And his gaping financial hole was stretched even further after making a £1million ‘voluntary ex-gratia contribution’ to cover the wages owed to staff at the time of the businesses collapse.
The TV star founded Jamie’s Italian in 2008 with his ex-mentor Gennaro Contaldo and soon swelled the company’s presence to 40 outlets nationwide.
But in 2017, six branches were closed and by May the business had racked up £71.5million worth of debt.
Staff at Oliver’s flagship restaurant in Birmingham claim they were sacked by email just 30 minutes before the company announced it had collapsed.
One worker said: ‘I’m really angry because 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.’
Oliver (pictured in 2002), first hit TV screens aged 23 on The Naked Chef, establishing his reputation as a cheeky, laid-back cook from Essex
Josh Singh started work at the company as door staff in 2013 and has worked his way up the ladder to become manager. The 24-year-old, from Birmingham, said: ‘I am gutted. We received an email from KPMG basically saying, I’m afraid you’re sacked, don’t bother coming into work’
Josh Singh started work at the company as door staff in 2013 and has worked his way up the ladder to become manager.
At the time the 24-year-old, from Birmingham, said: ‘I am gutted. We received an email from KPMG basically saying, I’m afraid you’re sacked, don’t bother coming into work’
Oliver, who shot to fame with a host of TV shows and cook books, has netted an estimated £240million since entering the public eye.
In January he and his wife Jools – with whom he has five children – snapped up a £6million 16th Century mansion in Essex.
They also own a mansion in Hampstead, north London, worth £8.9million.
Oliver, who shot to fame with a host of TV shows and cook books, has netted an estimated £240million since entering the public eye