More pain for Jamie Oliver’s restaurants with reports Barbecoa steak business for sale

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is reportedly considering selling the steak restaurant business he started in 2011, as part of an ongoing restructuring process that also involves the well-known Jamie’s Italian chain of restaurants.

Last week, British newspaper The Sun reported the Jamie’s Italian chain was $125.9 million (£71.5 million) in debt and Oliver’s restaurant group had entered a voluntary company arrangement.

This weekend, the BBC reports Oliver’s company, the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, has confirmed it is considering selling off another one of Oliver’s brands: Barbecoa steakhouse, which Oliver founded with his friend Adam Perry Lang.

Barbecoa currently only has two outlets in London, but employs 160 staff and its site at Piccadilly was relaunched only 12 months ago in February 2017.

The company has already confirmed it will close 12 Jamie’s Italian restaurants in the United Kingdom as it resolves its debts,  including $3.9 million (£2.2 million) owed to restaurant staff.

The BBC reports Oliver put £3 million ($5.32 million) of his own money into the struggling restaurant company in December 2017.

The Jamie’s Italian brand operates in a number of foreign markets, although these operations are unaffected by the situation at the British head office.

The Italian restaurant chain continues to operate in Australia, with Oliver buying the local stores back in 2016 after its operator Keystone Hospitality Group collapsed.

NOW READ: Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain has debts of $125.9 million, according to reports