Gordon Ramsay Empire Bleeding, Near Bankruptcy
Gordon Ramsay may have to make a call for help with his business holdings. Then again, perhaps not.
Ramsay, gourmet chef turned reality TV chef and star, is millions in debt and seems to be unable to get out from under it, according to CelebDirtyLaundry. Ramsay, famous for assisting restaurant and hotel owners turn their fortunes around using a combination of bombast and bellicose language, shows his holdings almost $50 million in debt without having made a profit for a few years now. Seeing that Ramsay made a reputation, much less a career, out of showing others how to succeed, this does not bode well for his empire.
It doesn’t seem to worry him. First, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares is done after this season, and the only thing Ramsay has in the pipeline is a new cooking show featuring his 12-year-0ld daughter, Tilly.
According to RadarOnline, director’s reports from Kavalake Holdings, the umbrella company for Ramsay’s many business endeavors, and Gordon Ramsay Holdings, a subsidiary that was once the main business entity, reveal just some of the financial dilemmas Ramsay and his business partners face. For the fiscal year ending August 31, 2013, Kavalake made a gross profit of $36.5 million, with expenses of $45.8 million and an operating loss of $9.2 million. With other expenses added, the loss for the year was more than $10.8 million. In addition, the report states, Kavalake had just $7.4 million cash at hand and $50.5 million of debt due in one year.
They also note that this year, the company was forced to spend nearly $2.8 million on legal and compliance costs. On Jan. 24, German sous chef Markus Barthel filed a suit in State Supreme Court alleging that he’d suffered career-threatening injuries to his tongue after biting into a piece of ceramic wedged into his burger at The London NYC during a March 7, 2013, visit. Though Ramsay’s lawyers convinced the court that Ramsay has no controlling interest in the restaurant that bears his name, he still had to pay for those lawyers, and other legal issues.
There is also issues with the holding company’s directorship. The three directors, one of which is Ramsay, all abstained from paying themselves from Gordon Ramsay Holdings in both 2012 and 2013, but the report for Kavalake shows more than $595,834 paid out to the three directors, one of which is Ramsay. Ramsay also has more than $8.4 million in personal guarantees sunk into the company.
The documents released only relate to Ramsay’s British business. In addition to 12 restaurants in the U.K., he has more than a dozen scattered elsewhere across the globe. No information was released concerning his other worldwide holdings.
