Jamie Oliver and his wife, Jools, have paid themselves £6.8m in dividends, up from £5.6m a year before, after a bounceback in television and restaurant income.
The celebrity chef, whose UK restaurant empire collapsed in 2019 with the loss of 1,000 jobs, has 70 restaurants around the world run by franchise partners and has sold 2m books spun out from last year’s TV series Jamie’s One-Pan Wonders.
Sales for the group increased by 8.1% to £29.7m and pre-tax profits rose 17.5% to £7.7m in the year to 31 December 2022, as it opened 13 new franchise restaurants overseas under several brands, including Jamie’s Italian, Jamie’s Deli and Jamie Oliver Kitchen. Sales at the chef’s cookery school in London increased by 35%.
Production and franchise income doubled, offsetting a slight drop in sales and profits from licensing Oliver’s name for use on products such as pans and pasta sauces.
The chef, who also benefited from a deal to help promote the supermarket chain Tesco, has announced plans to open his first directly run restaurant in the UK since he closed 22 Jamie’s Italian outlets, the Fifteen and Barbecoa restaurants in London and a Jamie’s Diner at Gatwick airport in 2019. At present, Oliver’s only UK outlet is a deli in Aberdeen run by a franchise partner.
Jamie Oliver Catherine Street, in Covent Garden, central London, is scheduled to open in November.
Kevin Styles, a former boss of the Vue cinema chain and the specialist retailer American Golf, became the chief executive of Oliver’s business empire a year ago.
On Wednesday, Styles said: “The Jamie Oliver brand continues to resonate with audiences around the world. The results for 2022 show we have the foundations in place from which to continue to evolve our business, putting our customers first, serving their mealtime needs across a range of relevant media and product solutions as well as restaurant and cooking experiences.”
He said the group wanted to create a more integrated food business using digital technology to link Oliver’s media interests, restaurants, licensed products and campaigns for better food.
In 2019, Oliver said he wanted to turn the remains of his business empire into a certified ethical “B corporation” that officially gave equal weight to people, the planet and profit.
Styles said: “Our goal is to maximise our brand’s commercial and social impact. With a more connected and detail-oriented approach, we plan to enter new markets and activate and scale global propositions and partnerships with local insight.”
