"Many Photos" - Jamie Oliver lost £25million when his restaurant chain collapsed costing 1,000 jobs

The collapse of Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain has burnt an eye-watering £25million hole in the celebrity chef's pockets.

Creditors have also suffered £83million of losses after stumping up funds to try to keep the flagging business afloat.

Oliver, 44, dipped into his own personal bank account to pay the wages of roughly 1,000 staff who have been made redundant. 

The collapse of Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain has burnt an eye-watering £25million hole in the celebrity chef's (pictured in north London) pockets

Following the closure announcement of 22 of the company's 23 restaurants in May, anxious employees were seen arriving to work in tears (staff pictured looking rueful)

Following the closure announcement of 22 of the company's 23 restaurants in May, these anxious employees were seen arriving to work in tears. 

But Oliver's £1million 'voluntary ex-gratia contribution' to cover their wages only scratches the surface of his overall losses.

Jamie Oliver Holdings, the chef's personal account, supplied an £18.3million  secured loans injection to the restaurant business, of which it will only claw back £2million.  

Of the creditors, HSBC will shoulder almost half of the total £83million losses after providing Jamie's Italian with £39.4million worth of secured debt, according to the joint administrators' report seen by the Times.

The TV star founded Jamie's Italian in 2008 and soon swelled the company's presence to 40 outlets nationwide

Oliver, who made assurances to the bank, has paid HSBC £4.7million. 

The TV star founded Jamie's Italian in 2008 with his ex-mentor Gennaro Contaldo and soon swelled the company's presence to 40 outlets nationwide.

But in 2017, six branches were closed and by May the business had racked up £71.5million worth of debt as the chef revealed the company had 'simply run out of cash'.

According to Companies House, Jamie Oliver Holdings turned over £32 million last year - a staggering £87,670 a day.  

Staff at Oliver's flagship restaurant in Birmingham claim they were sacked by email just 30 minutes before the company announced it had collapsed. 

In January he and his wife Jools - with whom he has five children -live in a £8.9million north London mansion

Oliver (pictured in 2002), first hit TV screens aged 23 on The Naked Chef, establishing his reputation as a cheeky, laid-back cook from Essex

One worker said: 'I'm really angry because Jamie won't be the one looking for a job and struggling to pay his bills, it'll be poor saps like us who worked for him.' 

Oliver, who shot to fame with a host of TV shows and cook books, has netted an estimated £240million since entering the public eye.

In January he and his wife Jools - with whom he has five children - snapped up a £6million 16th Century mansion in Essex.

They also own a mansion in Hampstead, north London, worth £8.9million. 

Timeline: How Jamie Oliver's chains plunged into debt

2008: Jamie's Italian opened its first restaurant in 2008.

2015: Jamie At Home, which contracted agents to sell his cookware range at parties, ceased trading after racking up losses. The company began in 2009, as part of the Jamie Oliver organisation, before being licensed to another firm in 2013, but shut up shop in 2015.

2017: Jamie's businesses lost £20m, forcing him to shut 18 of his Italian restaurants - leading to the loss of 600 jobs.

Chain was struggling with debts of £71.5m and teetered on the edge of bankruptcy before the chef injected his savings into the business. 

The firm also took out £37m in loans from HSBC and other companies. 

In 2017 he closed the last of his four his Union Jack Piazzas, in London's Covent Garden. 

2018: Jamie's Italian shuttered 12 of its 37 sites, with the latter tranche executed through a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).

He also came under fire for failing to pay suppliers after his upmarket steak restaurant Barbecoa crashed into administration, leading to the closure of its Piccadilly branch.  

The restaurant in St Paul's continued to trade and was bought out by a new company set up by Oliver, who was no longer legally liable for the debts. 

2019: All but three of Jamie Oliver's restaurants close after the business called in administrators, with 1,000 staff facing redundancy. 

Despite his financial woes, Jamie recently splashed out £6 million on a 16th century Essex mansion, in a 70-acre estate

Oliver, who shot to fame with a host of TV shows and cook books, has netted an estimated £240million since entering the public eye

 

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News Photo Jamie Oliver lost £25million when his restaurant chain collapsed costing 1,000 jobs
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