Gordon Ramsay Restaurants plans to open 50 UK sites

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant group is pressing ahead with expansion plans, having made a profit of more than £15 million last year.

Despite the detrimental impact of the coronavirus crisis, Ramsay has said it intends to open a further 50 restaurants across the UK in the foreseeable future, as well as a major expansion into Asia with 200 sites in the next five years.

Ramsay told the Daily Mail that the restaurants will create around 2,000 jobs in the UK, including some head office positions, adding that the business continues to “be optimistic and ambitious, knowing it is more important than ever before to invest in our industry, to support suppliers and to create jobs.”

While his current portfolio, including brands Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Petrus and Bread Street Kitchen, are concentrated in London, he is expected to look at more regional openings, with potential sites in Manchester and Newcastle.

He will also launch a ‘Street Burger’ concept this winter, modelled on his £15 all-you-can-eat ‘Street Pizza’ brand.

Of his global concepts, a second Hell’s Kitchen is opening in Dubai this year – the first is in Las Vegas – and a Pub and Grill is scheduled to open in Macau this Autumn.

Gordon Ramsay Restaurants made pre-tax profits of £15.1million, with sales of £54.6million, in the year to August 2019, and secured a $100million deal with investor Lion Capital to expand in North America in the period.

The business is now in talks with potential backers in the UK and Asia, including Lion Capital, over funding for the next round of expansion.

“We have big dreams, big plans and a global strategy so ambitious it takes my breath away,” he told the Mail. “I’ve lived and breathed the restaurant business for over 30 years. Fundamentally our focus is, and will always be on the guest and their experience.

“We have seen the mistakes others have made by not being focused, we do not intend to make the same mistakes.”