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Posts Tagged ‘Gordon Ramsay’

Restaurants under Pressure from Tax Authorities

Monday, November 14th, 2011

New figures have revealed that hundreds of London restaurants have been targeted by the taxman in a major attempt to crackdown on tax evasion.

According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, there are, in total, 159 restaurants in the capital, and a huge, 531 restaurants nationwide that have been targeted in the last six months. The HM Revenue & Customs tax task force is on quite a mission it would seem.

The restaurants have not been identified; however, it is public knowledge that the amount of unpaid tax involved in the most advanced 45 investigations is already as high as £634,000. The eventual total figure is expected to be well into the millions, and over 20 cases are currently being considered for fraud proceedings.

Many restaurant owners have suggested that they are seen as a “soft target” by tax authorities due to the high levels of cash that are handled by staff in tips every day. Many inspectors have been working undercover, posing as diners, in order to see how the service charge is being handled within the establishments.

In 2005, there was a similar crackdown, known as Operation Gourmet. This resulted in some of London’s best known restaurants coming under investigation, and eventually being fined. However, many then received refunds. For example, two Michelin-starred Pied à Terre was told to pay a fine of £187,000 for wrongly administered tips. This fine was then later reduced to £36,000. This would still however make a dent in the restaurants cashflow figures for the year, and it would also make restaurant insurance UK costs seem all the more expensive.

Meanwhile, French restaurant, Mon Plaisir, which can be found in Covent Garden, chose to go into voluntary liquidation instead of paying a demand for £500,000. They are now back in business however. At the time of the investigation, the restaurant owner was quoted saying: “I know the IR inspectors are just doing their job, but I haven’t done anything illegal.”

Furthermore, high profile, Celebrity Chef, Gordon Ramsay, claimed that his human rights had been abused after he suffered six years of investigations by HM Revenue & Customs. It was reported that no evidence of any wrongdoing was found.

Hopefully we will not see any restaurants being put out of business as a result of this tax investigation!

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Gordon Ramsay Opens Bread Street Kitchen…Finally

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant, Bread Street Kitchen, opened to the public this week, after what has been almost a year’s delay.

The luxurious, swanky £5 million all day restaurant is located near St Paul’s Cathedral, deep in the heart of our capital city, and just a stone’s throw from Jamie Oliver’s popular eatery, Barbecoa.

Mr Ramsay made sure he was there to witness the opening of his latest venture as he flew in from South Africa. Upon the opening of his restaurant, Ramsay was quoted saying that he promises all his customers a sense of “real theatre.” He then went on to say: “I’m a huge fan of what they do in New York. There they do things big and brash and they do it brilliantly.”

The restaurant offers diners a range of meals from a special Bread Street “English” for breakfast, a quick stone bass carpaccio with avocado, horseradish, ginger, honey and wakame for a lunch time treat at the raw counter, which sounds intriguing, or diners can enjoy a king crab cocktail and Bread Street short rib burger in the evening with a relaxing bottle of wine from the reportedly extensive wine list.

The opening evening saw some 350 people eat at the stylish restaurant, but not all customers were overwhelmed due to an allegedly poor service. Reports of 40 minute waits between courses and, in one particular case, a walkout, somewhat marred what was, on the whole, a resounding success.

Two happy customers, despite the poor service were Dylan Murphy and girlfriend Susan Shields. Mr Murphy commented: “The food was absolutely amazing but the service was shocking. We had to order the wine five times before they brought it.” Whilst Ms Shields said: “It’s their first night and there are some teething problems, but that’s part of the fun. You don’t expect it to be perfect on day one.”

The customers who walked out were Beverly and Mark Rabone. Mrs Rabone has said: “We booked the table for 10pm and when it got to 10.40pm we decided not to bother. The staff were lovely and the place looks great, but I don’t think they’ve got their act together yet.”

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay stated: “As with all new openings it takes a week or so for the team to settle in but we’re in great shape and thrilled at the early reactions to the food and the room.”

So it seems that Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant adventure has, on the whole, pleased and impressed. With so many restaurants now open in London, one begins to wonder whether Mr Ramsay receives discounted rates on his commercial restaurant insurance. One thing is for sure however, Bread Street Kitchen will go from strength to strength, especially once they have ironed out their teething issues and fine tuned their service.

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Hoorah! Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant makes a profit

Monday, June 6th, 2011

According to the accounts that have been filed at Companies House, the celebrity Chef, Gordon Ramsay has posted a return to profit which means that things are looking up for him after a terrible couple of years for his business.

In the previous accounts, the turnover had fallen quite steeply at his restaurant in Claridge’s hotel and there was a reduction of how much each person was spending at his Maze restaurant, which showed that people have cut back their spending on eating out.

With the falling out with his former business partner and father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, the business year could also be financially hit. Hutcheson was said to be the financial brains behind the business and was the former mentor to Ramsay for 13 years, was discovered to be leading a double life with another woman and fathered two children, was sacked.

In the coming year, significant professional and legal costs will have been and are likely to be incurred to resolve issues. Despite this, Ramsay has however significantly improved financially after struggling a few years ago by cutting costs.

Ramsay cut costs by finding the best agreements with suppliers, restaurant insurance providers, reducing staff and trimming the salary bill from £11 million to £9.3 million. Neither Hutcheson nor Ramsay took a salary during the year and pre-tax profit for Gordon Ramsay Holdings was £2.05 mill in 2010 compared to £567,000 in 2009.

Murano, the popular Italian restaurant was also sold to its head chef Angela Hartnett for £2.5 million, helping Ramsay’s business.

Gordon Ramsay Holdings International stretches over two separate sets of accounts. The second set of accounts includes Ramsay’s more newly opened restaurants, including the bistro Foxtrot Oscar based at Heathrow. The accounts show that he has managed to cut losses at these places.

In the 12 months to August 2010 losses were £1.85 million compared to in the previous year when losses totalled £8.3 million.

Adding the two businesses together, Gordon Ramsay Holdings International has returned to a profit of £0.2 million, up from a loss of £7.7 million the year before.

“Gordon Ramsay Holdings International’s performance for the coming year is healthy and meeting expectations despite the economic climate remaining uncertain. The group has reported a considerable turnaround for combined profits before tax, regardless of the hospitality industry facing challenging conditions” explained a spokesperson of the group.

However, Ramsay has lent the business £7.9 million during the year, which shows that the company is relying heavily on personal loans made by him.

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