Gordon Ramsay restaurants cut jobs as UK losses deepen

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant group has reported a sharp fall in staff numbers and widening losses across its UK business. The figures come amid a challenging period for the wider hospitality sector, which has seen more than half of all UK job losses since the last Budget.

On the 60th floor of 22 Bishopsgate, London’s highest restaurant, Gordon Ramsay recently toasted the launch of Knife Edge, his new Apple TV series, surrounded by Michelin-starred talent and celebrity friends. It was a suitably glamorous backdrop for a chef whose career has long been built on spectacle.

Yet, as reported by The Times, behind the fanfare of Netflix deals, Formula 1 tie-ups and a promised Hell’s Kitchen debut at Marble Arch next spring, cracks are showing in Ramsay’s restaurant business. Accounts for Union Street Café Limited, which runs his UK sites, reveal pre-tax losses ballooning to £15.8 million in the 70 weeks to 29 December 2024, compared to £4.6 million in the previous year.

Small margins

While the company trumpeted “robust” sales, inflation and soaring energy and wage costs continued to eat into profits. Exceptional costs of £1.1 million related to site closures, alongside a £3.9 million impairment on seven restaurants, according to filings at Companies House.

Cash reserves dwindled to just £9,500 while liabilities jumped by £13.2 million to £58.7 million. Ramsay personally guaranteed £3.8 million of the group’s banking facilities, as per the same filings.

Staffing cuts in a shrinking sector

The latest accounts for Gordon Ramsay Restaurants show total staff numbers dropped to 1,168 in 2024, down from 1,344 the previous year, according to The Telegraph. This marks the sharpest decline since Covid, when 292 jobs were lost.

It’s a pattern mirrored across the wider UK hospitality sector. As reported by the drinks business, hospitality has suffered nearly 89,000 job losses since last October’s Budget, more than half of all redundancies nationwide, according to analysis from UKHospitality.

Kate Nicholls, the trade body’s chair, described the toll as “staggering”, warning that “the sheer scale of costs being placed upon hospitality has forced businesses to take agonisingly tough decisions to cut jobs.”

Global ambitions

Ramsay’s international reach remains impressive, with 65 restaurants abroad, including 37 in North America. But even overseas expansion hasn’t insulated the business from domestic challenges. A February merger with private equity backer Lion Capital brought the UK and US operations under one roof in London, part of a drive to expand quick-service formats and strengthen global licensing.

Chief executive Andy Wenlock said in a statement that the group was “unafraid to be entrepreneurial”. Yet the figures suggest that even a chef of his stature isn’t immune to the economic headwinds facing Britain’s restaurant sector.

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