Gordon Ramsay has plans to add 50 new branches to his chain brands across the UK over the next five years. A financial report, seen by The Caterer, confirmed the intentions.

Moves by the celebrity chef include expanding his Bread Street Kitchen concept (posh pub grub), and to also open new Street Burger sites in and outside of London.

The group’s turnover grew to £54.7m to the year ending August 2019, which is an increase of 2.1 per cent. It posted a pre-tax profit of £15.2m, up from just £500,000 in 2018.

But the group has not escaped the perils of Covid-19. Statements regarding this year’s trading note the outbreak of the virus had a “significant impact of the business” and the full impact of the pandemic on the company is not yet known.

Ramsay’s company now has 14 London restaurants, with 10 more under licence agreements. His haute cuisine flagships include the three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, the Michelin-starred Petrus, the Savoy Grill, and Lucky Cat. His less flamboyant, luxuriant (and more scalable and ultimately, we would guess, profitable) ventures include his Plane Food concept at Heathrow and his burger brand.

In March, the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant Group terminated the contracts of hundreds of staff members working across its London restaurants due to the outbreak of coronavirus. Afterwards, the group is understood to have since made use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to furlough staff.