Jamie Oliver’s Australian restaurant venture has ended and has been sold to the restaurant group Hallmark in a last-minute rescue deal.
The five restaurants in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Parramatta will remain open to customers, however, the sixth branch in Canberra has closed immediately.
“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,” read a statement released on Monday on behalf of the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group Australia.
Hallmark said it was “thrilled to partner with Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group on the Australian portfolio.”
“We’ll be working closely with Jamie and the UK team, staff and local suppliers to keep driving the business forward and delivering exceptional experiences across the country,” the group added.
It is not only the Australian branch of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants that have been struggling with debt. In the UK, one of his restaurants closed after falling into administration and his Italian division closed 12 of the 37 outlets in an attempt to curb heavy losses.
Recent results revealed a pre-tax loss of £9.9 million in 2016. Sales were down three percent. The UK business entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement believing it could trade out of its troubles.
In February, court documents showed Jamie’s Italian with debts of £71.5 million. This included £30.2 million of overdrafts and loans.
The company said that the closures of the restaurants were due to uncertainties caused by Brexit and the “tough” market.
Many UK high street restaurants are facing pressure. Byron burger is also planning to close up to 20 restaurants in a rescue package. KPMG will handle the restructuring of the group and said that employees, suppliers and business rates would continue to be paid on time and in full.