Gordon Ramsay's restaurant company defies all odds, turns a profit

Gordon Ramsay's restaurant business registered a £0.5m pre-tax profit for the year terminating in August 2018, a year after recording a £3.8m loss.

This is only the second time in 6 years that the company has made gains, having reported losses every year but one since 2012, according to The Guardian. 

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he group reported sales totaling £53.6m for the year, a 4.3% rise over the previous year.

The news is all the more  joyous for the celebrity chef given that other restaurant chains across the UK are struggling to stay afloat. 

Last week, Jamie Oliver's restaurant empire went into administration resulting in 22 restaurant closures across the UK and more than 1,000 job losses across the country; Carluccio's recently closed 35 of its branches across the UK, Gaucho closed its Cau chain, cutting 540 jobs and Prezzo is closing 93 of its restaurants, also causing more than 1,000 job losses.

A study by The UHY Hacker Young Group found that the UK's top 100 restaurants made a cumulative loss of £82m in the past twelve months, compared to a pre-tax profit of £108m the year before. 

Rapid physical expansion, poorly indexed on consumer habits has meant that companies have had expend large one-off sums to close loss-making branches - paying redundancy fees, terminating leases ahead of contract expiries and ending supply agreements. This adds to an increase in costs relating to the falling value of the pound and higher staffing costs.

With more than 15 restaurants in London alone, The Gordon Ramsay Group has 35 venues across the globe and the chef seemingly has no intention of curtailing his expansion plans. Shortly after closing Maze in Grosvenor Square in January this year, he launched his pan-Asian concept restaurant, Lucky Cat, in Covent Garden last month. 

The chef is also said to be considering the expansion of his bottomless pizza restaurant, Street Pizza, to locations outside of London - despite the middle-market offering being that which has suffered the most financial losses across the UK in recent years.