Jamie Oliver's £1.75m windfall hard to swallow for suppliers owed millions

Jamie Oliver's £1.75m windfall hard to swallow for suppliers owed millions
Jamie Oliver's £1.75m windfall hard to swallow for suppliers owed millions
Jamie Oliver's £1.75m windfall from ruins of collapsed restaurants - but suppliers who were owed millions after the collapse of his empire will get a fraction of that Oliver was forced to close his Jamie's Italian restaurants when empire collapsed The business, Jamie’s Italian, owed around £83 million when it went bust in 2018 The TV chef will recoup £1.75m after ploughing £15m of his cash into company Meanwhile, creditors will have to share £600k that has been set aside for claims

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He's the super-rich TV chef who faced a spectacular downfall when his restaurant empire collapsed in 2018, owing millions of pounds to his suppliers.

But Jamie Oliver can breathe a sigh of relief, as the Daily Mail's Richard Eden can reveal he’s recouped £1.75 million.

This may, however, cause his suppliers to boil over. They include such prestigious names as the Queen’s wine merchant Berry Bros, and Natoora, the fashionable organic veg supplier which sells to Michelin-starred chefs.

The celebrity chef, 46, closed 22 of his Jamie's Italian restaurants with the loss of 1,000 jobs in May 2019 after profits plunged as customers stayed away. 

The business, Jamie’s Italian, owed around £83 million when it went bust. Oliver ploughed in about £15 million of his own money, and now £1.75 million will be paid to his holding company, Jamie Oliver Holdings Ltd.

Jamie Oliver visits Jamie's Italian restaurant, Vienna, Austria - 20 Apr 2018

Jamie Oliver

Celebrity TV Chef Jamie Oliver (pictured) ploughed in about £15 million of his own money, and now £1.75 million will be paid to his holding company, Jamie Oliver Holdings Ltd

In January last year, the company's administrator KPMG revealed that the majority of the £83million owed to secured and unsecured creditors such as food suppliers, councils and landlords would not be recovered.  

Auditors said that while three Jamie's Italian restaurants and delis at Gatwick Airport remain open, the people owed money for the past eight months are likely to be significantly out of pocket.

Now it has emerged that unsecured creditors, such as the suppliers owed millions, will have to share £600,000 that has been set aside for their claims.

One of the largest debts to a supplier is the £221,494 run up by the chain with Direct Meats, based in Essex.

The company’s director, Martin Blackwell, said in a report on the firm’s trading for 2019: ‘In the previous year we had established what we believed to be a strong relationship with Jamie Oliver’s Italian.

'And here we had seen more than a doubling in the business between the

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