Ella Scott
Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant group has reportedly axed almost 200 jobs as the UK hospitality industry faces rising costs, staff shortages, and other setbacks.
The 58-year-old, whose restaurant portfolio includes over 80 establishments worldwide, made headlines earlier in October with the news he’d be launching his ‘biggest project’ yet - another eatery situated inside 22 Bishopsgate, London.
Set to open in 2026, the Bread Street Kitchen & Bar will join Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay, the intimate, 12-seat affair Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High, and a cooking school academy - all of which call the 62-floor tower home.
The Caterer revealed the new venture would hire around 150 people, with Chief Executive Andy Wenlock marking it as the start of the Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Group’s ‘transformational phase’.
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However, The Telegraph reported that Ramsay’s kitchen empire has recently faced a nightmare, cutting up to 200 jobs within a year-long period.
Latest accounts filed at Companies House for the chef’s firm revealed his UK businesses employed 1,168 staff in 2024, down from 1,344 in 2023, as per the outlet.
This is the sharpest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, when 292 jobs were lost.
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The UK hospitality industry is on course to have lost 111,000 jobs in just over a year by the next Budget on 26 November, according to The Caterer. This spells an increasingly worrying time for large brands like Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Group and independents alike.
Moreover, accounts for Union Street Café Limited, which runs the company’s UK sites, revealed pre-tax losses of up to £15.8 million in the 70 weeks to 29 December 2024, compared to £4.6 million in the shorter trading period of the year to August 27, 2023, The Drinks Business reported.
Losses last year included £1.1 million of exceptional items, including unspecified site closures, and a £3.9 million impairment on four casual dining restaurants and three premium casual sites, claimed the outlet.
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A source allegedly familiar with the Hell’s Kitchen chef told The Telegraph that the ‘scale of these setbacks points to more than just market conditions’.
“The company culture emphasises loyalty over skill, often sidelining competence in favour of personal trust, in a hectic environment.”
The newspaper added that sales performance was described as overall ‘robust’ despite inflation.
It was also alleged that, like many other hospitality businesses, energy prices and wages were ‘placing continued pressure on the group’s cost base’.
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FOODbible has contacted representatives of the Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Group for further comment.
Ramsay, who currently holds seven Michelin stars across four of his establishments, recently celebrated the release of his new Apple TV+ series, Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars.
The episodic documentary, produced by his company Studio Ramsay Global, goes behind the scenes of chefs building restaurants in the United States, Nordic Countries, Britain, Ireland, Mexico, and Italy.
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On October 5, the father-of-four toasted the show’s launch at 22 Bishopsgate, London, with fellow chefs and industry figures Paul Ainsworth, Nyesha Arrington, Santiago Lastra, Margarita Kallas-Lee, and Marcus Wareing.
The eight-part documentary, Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars, is available to stream now.