The group, which comprises Jamie Oliver Holdings Limited (JOHL), Jamie Oliver Licensing Limited (JOLL) and Jamies’ Italian International Limited (JILL), delivered pre-exceptional EBITDA of £15.4m for the year, down 13.5% on 2018.
Profit was impacted by exceptional charges of £5.9m related to the UK restaurant administration and its impact on JILL, according to the company.
During the first half of the year, JOHL operated as financer for the separate Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group business, which entered into administration in May 2019. Subsequent to this JOHL acquired JIIL, which encompassed the international franchise restaurants, from the administrators.
JILL results are consolidated in the JOH accounts for the 6 months to 31 December 2019.
The group has reported strong trading in its restaurant franchises outside of the UK, and states it ended 2019 with 69 restaurants in 26 countries, working with 19 partners.
The restaurant business also opened a Jamie Oliver Cookery School in London in November 2019.
The group represents all the media interests of the celebrity chef, made up primarily of TV, distribution and digital production, book publishing, endorsements, royalty streams derived from licensing the Jamie Oliver brand, and the sales and management of branded products, and the franchising of international restaurant concepts.
The company says the results ‘demonstrate the resilience’ of its diverse portfolio, with sales of Oliver’s cookbook VEG passing 900,000 copies by the end of 2019 and sales of 18 million product units, including pots and pans, through its partnership with Tefal.
