Friday Five: the week's top news
- Gordon Ramsay is to close his London restaurant Maze and relaunch the site as a new concept in 2019. The decision was confirmed as the chef's wider restaurant group reported pre-tax losses of £3.8m in the 12 months to 31 August 2017. Maze opened in 2005 and lost its Michelin star in 2015 after nine years.
- Carluccio's is the latest high street chain to propose launching a company voluntary agreement (CVA), which could see a third of its 103 restaurants close. It follows a strategic review of the business which concluded that "urgent action" was needed to save the brand.
- Jamie Oliver has dropped of the Sunday Times Rich List for the first time in eight years following a turbulent few months for his restaurant business. The chef, whose net worth was estimated at £150m in the 2017 list, has closed 12 of his 37 Jamie's Italian sites since January.
- A survey of more than 600 London restaurant operators has found that over three quarters say they will have to close or leave the capital if rents and business rates continue to rise at the current rate. Over 80% polled described their current costs as "high" or "unsustainable" and just 16% said they could continue trading as normal if rents and rates continued to rise.
- The future of Gaucho's CAU steak and burger brand remains in doubt after the group appointed KPMG to consider its options. M Restaurants founder Martin Williams, a former Gaucho MD, has indicated he could make another bid to buy CAU after he approached its owner Equistone Partners in late-2017.
For more of this week's news click here.
