Gordon Ramsay Business Backgrounder

5262 Words22 Pages
GORDON RAMSAY, the foul-mouthed television chef, has publicly admitted for the first time that his restaurant empire came close to collapse earlier this year. His accountants drew up plans to put the business into administration and at one point Ramsay owed the tax-man more than £7m. “It was the worst bollocking ever . . . They told me I was f*****,” he said. The desperate move came in January when auditors from KPMG found that Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) was losing millions of pounds after botching an ambitious overseas expansion plan. Related Links ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form Bottom of Form * Ramsay's kitchen nightmare ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form Bottom of Form “They said we should plan for administration. That it would be smoother for everyone,” Ramsay said in his first interview since his business was plunged into chaos and his family-man image was tarnished by claims that he had had a seven-year affair. Auditors wanted to take control of his global restaurant group, comprising 21 restaurants and pubs in London, New York, Los Angeles, Florida, Paris, Tokyo, Dubai, Ireland and Prague, to “cherry-pick the winners and say goodbye to the losers”, Ramsay said. Three of his restaurants have now closed. The crisis came after GRH breached covenants – promises made to lenders to secure a loan – on its £500,000 overdraft and £10m of loans with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). “We went over our overdraft limit and we did not hit revenue targets,” Ramsay said. The bank sent in KPMG to go over GRH’s books. A separate investigation by HM Revenue & Customs found that the company owed £7.2m in taxes. Ramsay concedes that his ego got the better of him and the company expanded too far, too fast, opening 10 restaurants in 10 months last year, many of them overseas: “Tenacity and
Open Document