Jamie’s Italian in Adelaide is safe following a last-minute buy out of the company
JAMIE’S Italian restaurant in Adelaide is safe, for now, following a last-minute purchase of the company.
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JAMIE’S Italian in Adelaide is safe, for now.
While the chain’s Canberra restaurant closed suddenly on Monday, with no explanation, a spokesperson for the Australian brand said it was “business as usual” for the King William St diner, and four other sites around the nation.
The assurances were made despite reports that the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group (Australia) Pty Ltd collapsed on Monday.
Voluntary administrators were called in a little more than a year after the Naked Chef himself bought the Australian arm in the wake of its former operating company, the Keystone Group, being placed in receivership in June 2016. Oliver came to Australia in March last year to relaunch the restaurants.
The first Jamie’s Italian opened in Sydney in 2012, with the Keystone group managing the brand’s national spread.
After the shock Canberra closure, Oliver’s company yesterday announced the remaining five restaurants here and in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Parramatta would now be tended by a new operating partner, the Brisbane-based Hallmark Group.
“Australia has and continues to be one of our best performing international markets and, after a short period of in-house management we are pleased to be partnering with Hallmark,” said a Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group spokesperson, who mentioned plans to “develop the Jamie’s Italian restaurant offering across Australia”.
In a statement, a Hallmark spokesperson also added it was “actively seeking new suitable locations for the next Jamie’s Italian”.
The news comes hard on the heels of revelations of the The Naked Chef’s financial struggle in the UK, with Oliver’s business reportedly restructuring to solve debts of £71.5 million ($132 million), and reports that Oliver had been pleading with landlords for rent cuts.
The Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group has 27 sites in the UK and a further 53 sites around the globe.
Oliver last year spoke of “dreams come true” and a “happy ending” when he stepped in to become the owner of the Jamie’s Italian chain in Australia.
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