Telly chef turned restauranteur Jamie Oliver has blamed the collapse of his restaurant empire on Brexit.
The 44-year-old said that economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit has caused punters to dine out less.
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Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, Jamie said:
“The world changed, the high street changed – it started to become Uber-fied. Our competitors changed, and we looked less different to them.
“There’s that chain reaction, throw in a bit of Brexit, confidence goes and people’s habits changed.”
An estimated 1,000 people have lost their jobs since Jamie’s Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen 25 went into administration this May.
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Despite Jamie injecting millions of his own funds into his struggling restaurants, they lost £26 million in a single year.
Jamie goes on in the same interview to say that his “birthday was ruined because of the cloud” of the failures.
Worth a staggering £240 million, Jamie is reportedly about to move into the £6 million sprawling mansion he purchased last year.
The married dad of five children is set to leave his London home for the country estate in Braintree, Essex.
Jamie says he feels optimistic about the future, and that he has learned valuable lessons from the restaurant closures.
“It’s a fascinating time – one for me to sit back, learn some stuff, be humbled, try to deal with the mess and move on,” he told BBC Radio 4.
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