LONDON — The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver put his British restaurants into administration, a form of bankruptcy protection, on Tuesday, after the chain struggled with debt and an increasingly saturated market in recent years.
All but three of Mr. Oliver’s 25 restaurants will close, and about 1,000 employees will lose their jobs, according to KPMG, the firm hired to administer the business for creditors.
The remaining outlets, two Jamie’s Italian restaurants and a Jamie’s Diner at Gatwick Airport, will stay open indefinitely.
“I’m devastated that our much-loved UK restaurants have gone into administration,” Mr. Oliver wrote on Twitter. “I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the people who have put their hearts and souls into this business over the years.”
Mr. Oliver set up the restaurant group just over a decade ago, on the back of his fame as “The Naked Chef” on television. The business expanded to include Jamie’s Italian, Jamie Oliver’s Diner and Barbecoa steakhouses.
Mr. Oliver’s restaurants have struggled with debt and increased competition.CreditPaul Miller/EPA, via Shutterstock
Mr. Oliver’s broader empire has expanded, too. As well as writing cookbooks and presenting television programs, Mr. Oliver has campaigned for healthier food in school cafeterias, was featured in advertising for supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury’s, and opened restaurants overseas. He has also teamed up with Shell to supply his deli foods to service stations across Britain.
But his British restaurants ran into financial trouble in 2016 and got into such dire straits that Mr. Oliver had to inject millions from his own savings to salvage the business. Even then, he had to close about 20 restaurants and pizzerias in the months that followed.
The group started looking for buyers late last year, and Mr. Oliver provided an additional 4 million pounds, or about $5 million, of his own money this year to make the investment more attractive.
But the company struggled to find interest and floundered as competition grew in the midmarket casual dining sector.
“The current trading environment for companies across the casual dining sector is as tough as I’ve ever seen,” Will Wright, an administrators at KPMG, said in a statement. “The directors at Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group have worked tirelessly to stabilize the business against a backdrop of rising costs and brittle consumer confidence.”
Mr. Oliver’s restaurants are not the only ones grappling with a saturated market. Other restaurants serving Italian food and hamburgers in Britain have closed outlets and restructured in recent months. The Italian restaurant group Prezzo closed almost 100 restaurants last year, while the Byron burger chain had to restructure and close about 20 of its outlets.
The restaurants that were placed in administration on Tuesday are 22 branches of Jamie’s Italian, a Jamie Oliver’s Diner, a Barbecoa and Fifteen London.
Mr. Oliver’s international restaurants and Fifteen Cornwall, a restaurant in southwest England that trains apprentice chefs and is run by a foundation, are unaffected.
