Jamie Oliver's restaurant empire collapsed — 1,000 jobs and 22 restaurants gone

Jamie Oliver is one of the world's best-known chefs, and he lent his name to a restaurant group that grew into a chain of more than 25 UK restaurants, led by the Jamie's Italian brand and including others such as Barbecoa and Fifteen. For a time the group expanded steadily, betting that the celebrity chef's name would keep tables full.

The market turned against it. The UK's casual-dining sector became crowded and competitive, while rents, business rates and labour costs rose. The group had expanded into exactly the kind of high-street locations where those costs bite hardest, and diners were eating out more cautiously. The restaurants struggled to make the numbers work.

In May 2019 the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group went into administration. Twenty-two of its twenty-five UK restaurants closed, and about 1,000 people lost their jobs. Oliver said he was 'deeply saddened' by the collapse of the group he had built over more than a decade.

The case is a reminder that a famous name is a marketing asset, not a business model. It can fill a restaurant when it opens; it cannot keep it full when the costs rise and the market crowds in. Oliver's group expanded its cost base on the strength of a brand, and when the trading got hard the brand was not enough to carry it.