‘Negative press’ caused collapse of Gino D’Acampo chain

Negative press around celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo has been named as a reason for the collapse of his restaurant chain, according to a filing on Companies House from administrators Begbies Traynor.

The filing stated that in early February of 2025, “there was a swathe of negative national and local press around Gino D’Acampo relating to his TV career, which lasted for many weeks and began to negatively impact the sales of the restaurants”.

The directors of Upmarket Leisure, which controlled the star’s venues, stated that a prospective new hotel partner paused on a new site in Bath due to the negative press.

The filing also revealed that the company owed £11m before it was wound up by HMRC. Co-majority owner and former JD Sports CEO Peter Cowgill was owed £2.6m while fellow secured creditor Simon Clarke was owed almost £1.6m.

Furthermore, the company owes HMRC £4.2m and the tax authority is expected to receive a portion of this. Unsecured creditors are estimated to be owed £3m.

Upmarket Leisure’s directors said the firm’s 2024/25 financial was forecasted to be “significantly better” than the actual performance. This forecast was produced based on the previous year’s performance alongside development projects which were in the pipeline.

The directors also stated that £2m was invested in new sites and developments which had costs exacerbated by delays and other external factors.

The company produced an updated forecast halfway through the year reducing sales expectations and cutting costs, including slashing central and head office costs by 50%

This was achieved by director pay cuts, not paying executive fees, a recruitment freeze, reduced working weeks and salaries, redundancies and the deployment of people in head office to vacant positions across its locations. It was also agreed that D’Acampo would waive his brand fees for 12 months.