Jamie Oliver is to revive his Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain in the UK, more than six years after the celebrity chef’s brand collapsed.
Jamie’s Italian is poised to be relaunched in the spring, starting with a restaurant in London’s Leicester Square.
Oliver’s return to the UK restaurant scene is being backed by Brava Hospitality Group – the private equity-backed group that runs the Prezzo chain – which intends to relaunch the brand across the UK.
“As a chef, having the chance to return to the high street is incredibly important to me,” he said. “I will drive the menus, make sure the sourcing is right, the staff training, and ensure the look and feel of the restaurant is brought to life in the right way.”
Jamie’s Italian was first launched with his mentor, the chef Gennaro Contaldo, in Oxford in 2008. The brand was expanded to about 40 sites at its peak, before a series of restructuring programmes started to reduce the number of locations from 2017.
Two years later the now 50-year-old was forced to call in the administrators after a sales process that sought to bring in new investment into the business proved unsuccessful.
In an email to staff at the time, Oliver blamed “the well-publicised struggles of the casual dining sector and decline of the UK high street, along with soaring business rates”.
Oliver’s return comes at a time when the hospitality industry faces several challenges including soaring food inflation, increasing wage costs and lacklustre trade as consumers rein in spending on non-essentials amid higher household bills.
“In theory it’s not the easiest time to return but conversely, I think it’s the perfect time,” Oliver said. “I believe the mid-market needs excitement, surprise and delight and that’s exactly what I am planning on delivering.”
The failure of Jamie’s Italian in 2019 resulted in 1,000 job losses.
After the collapse of the UK business, the Jamie’s Italian brand continued to operate overseas and it has more than 30 restaurants in 25 countries. Overall, Oliver still has about 70 restaurants around the world run by franchise partners.
Ed Loftus, the global director of Jamie Oliver Restaurants, said the partnership with Brava “marks an exciting next chapter” for the group in the UK.
“Our priority is making the first location exceptional,” he said. “The public will ultimately determine how quickly and how far we grow.”
Financial filings released in October showed that Oliver and his wife, Jools, paid themselves £2.5m in dividends for the second year in a row, as pre-tax profits at their core media and restaurant empire slumped.
Pre-tax profits at Jamie Oliver Holdings (JOH) fell by £1m to £2.4m last year. This was despite a 6% rise in sales to £28.6m, helped by an increase in restaurant income after the November 2023 opening of his first directly run restaurant since the collapse of his UK empire.
JOH includes Oliver’s media interests such as TV production, books, endorsements, his cookery school and his restaurant, as well as franchise income from the overseas outlets, fees for promoting the supermarket Tesco, and royalties from products bearing his name.
