Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant group has returned to ‘the black’, announcing a pre-tax profit of £500,000 in the year ending in August 2018.
The television chef’s 31-strong restaurant empire includes 15 dining concepts in London alone, while Ramsay also operates several international outposts, in glamorous locations such as Las Vegas, Dubai and Hong Kong.
Fellow chef Jamie Oliver recently announced the collapse of his restaurant group
Ramsay’s restaurant group appears to have defied current industry trends, which have seen several large restaurant groups face challenging times. National chains such as Strada, Byron and Carluccio’s have all faced closures, while just last week, celebrity chef and Ramsay’s peer Jamie Oliver announced the collapse of his restaurant empire. The so-called ‘naked chef’ has since closed all but three of his Jamie’s Italian sites in the UK, as well as his much-lauded restaurants Barbecoa and Fifteen.
The news marks a return to profit for Ramsay’s group, which in the previous year posted a loss of £3.8 million, in part due to a legal battle and the five-month closure of Ramsay’s Heathrow terminal outpost Plane Food.
What the interiors will look like at Lucky Cat
Hopefully continuing the company’s good fortune, Ramsay has future plans to expand his bottomless by-the-slice Street Pizza concept. The casual brand already has an outpost in St Paul’s and Camden, but Ramsay hopes to take it outside of London, despite what he calls “the much-maligned market conditions”.
In the present day, the chef will replace his Maze Mayfair, which has operated for 14 years, this summer with his latest concept – Asian-inspired Lucky Cat. The restaurant takes its lead from the drinking dens of 1930s Tokyo and is reported to have already taken 3,000 reservations since booking lines opened in late May. Lucky Cat is currently scheduled to open on 24 June.
To work your way through the chef’s London empire, take a look at all of the Gordon Ramsay Group restaurants.