Exclusive – Jamie Oliver to relaunch Jamie’s Italian in the UK in partnership with Prezzo Italian team: Chef Jamie Oliver is to relaunch his Jamie’s Italian brand in the UK next year after signing a partnership deal with Brava Hospitality Group, the Cain International-backed operator of Prezzo Italian, Propel has learned. The first site under the partnership will see a new flagship Jamie’s Italian open on Irving Street, Leicester Square, next spring. Oliver launched the first Jamie’s Italian restaurant with his Italian mentor, chef Gennaro Contaldo, in Oxford in 2008. The concept was initially a major success, with diners queuing around the block, and at one point expanded to circa 40 sites across the UK. However, increased competition, soaring business rates and rising costs saw the brand go backwards and it began closing sites in 2017 as part of a restructuring effort. The wider Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group went into administration in May 2019, resulting in the closure of 22 of the brand’s remaining 25 restaurants. The international branches, which were run by partners, were unaffected by the UK administration and continued to operate. As of late 2023, the group’s international restaurant business had more than 75 restaurants in 22 countries, including 30 sites trading successfully under the Jamie’s Italian brand in 15 countries. Brava and Oliver said the new partnership signals confidence in the “powerful appeal of the Jamie’s Italian brand”. They said that strategic return to the UK signals a “confidence in the UK hospitality sector and capitalises on the strength of Jamie's brand as well as love for Italian cuisine”. The companies said: “Balancing nostalgia and modernity, Jamie has carefully curated a new menu that will feature a mix of new dishes as well as some of the much-loved classics including the famous cured meat planks, prawn linguine and Gennaro’s bolognese all sourced to his higher food standards. The restaurant design will be revitalised, reflecting some of the key successes from the international Jamie’s Italian restaurants but at the heart of the rebrand, guests will experience a familiar warmth and generosity.” Ed Loftus, global director of Jamie Oliver Restaurants, said: “Partnering with Brava, backed by Cain International, marks an exciting next chapter for Jamie Oliver Restaurants in the UK. This partnership brings together one of the world's most recognised chefs with a highly capable operator and the long-term investment to build something with real longevity. We’ve taken the time to reintroduce Jamie’s Italian in a way that feels modern and focused, a tighter menu, a renewed emphasis on fresh pasta and quality ingredients, and warm, straightforward hospitality. Our priority is making the first location exceptional; the public will ultimately determine how quickly and how far we grow.” In September, Prezzo Italian rebranded as Brava Hospitality Group to reflect its transition from a single-brand operator to a broader platform designed to manage and grow multiple brands across the UK. The group has been created to be “the home of great restaurant brands” – reflecting its ambition to deliver exceptional guest experiences built on three core beliefs: great food, great environments and excellent service. James Brown, chief executive of Brava Hospitality Group, said: “At Brava, our focus is to invest in brands where food, people and purpose come together. We’ve seen the magic of Jamie's Italian around the world, and we believe deeply in the power of his brand. Our ambition is to bring world-class Italian dining to the heart of the UK high street. A lot of time and energy has gone into evolving the Jamie's Italian concept to make that vision a reality. This marks an exciting new chapter for both Jamie's Italian and Brava and reflects our commitment to reimagining the high street with exceptional, modern hospitality.” The brand will sit alongside the circa 95-strong Prezzo Italian, which underwent its own transformation and rebrand earlier this spring, overseen by Brown, who joined the business last November. The business recently reported a like-for-like sales increase of 11% in its third quarter, with the first four refurbished restaurants delivering an average of over 60% growth compared to the prior year. The company said that the return of Jamie’s Italian to the UK represents an “exciting and defining step forward” for Brava Hospitality Group and a “renewed commitment to shaping the future of UK dining”.

Not everyone gets a second chance. But it seems that is what Jamie Oliver is hoping to get with a brand that was the catalyst for a golden period of casual dining concepts born out of the downturn at the end of the noughties. Jamie’s Italian was a game changer and the leader of a pack, which included the likes of Wahaca, Byron, Cote, Bill’s and Pho. It made dining out feel both aspirational and every day. It brought affordable Italian food to the UK high street, wrapped in Oliver’s approachable, “everyday chef” ethos. It raised the bar, and was all underpinned by Oliver’s cookbooks, TV shows, and campaigns (like school dinners) which provided further momentum.

The problem was that after a time, everyone caught up, and at the same time, Jamie’s Italian rapid expansion diluted its quality and consistency, while Oliver’s focus was diverted by other concepts such as Barbecoa, Union Jacks and Recipease. From a peak of circa 40 sites, by 2019, only three remained, sold to SSP after the administrators were brought in, with the company saddled with £85m of debt.

Oliver has since said that the original business model was wrong from day one due to factors like high rental costs for prime locations, rising food prices and general pressures in the mid-market dining sector. He personally injected millions of pounds to try and save the business before its collapse. The separate international business including Jamie’s Italian – away from the harsher glare of the UK market and perhaps in less competitive markets – has continued to grow and be successful. It is on track to have 100 sites by the end of next year, with talk of a move into the US again on the table.

As Ed Loftus, who has done a brilliant job of steering the international business tells me, Oliver feels “very fortunate” to have this opportunity to go again. He said: “He talks about it as a second chance, and not everyone gets a second chance. So, there’s that really nice mix of nervousness and excitement. It’s a big moment for Jamie as an individual, but for us as a group as well. It's hugely significant, and it's not something we're going to take lightly. It’s quite a big decision to make as a group, as we all realise how high the stakes are. Going into this you have to be 100% confident, and we are. There’s great chemistry between the two teams. We're feeling very excited and we can't wait to bring it to the high street.”

Oliver dipped his toe back into the UK dining scene at the end of 2023, with the opening of Jamie Oliver Catherine Street, a new upmarket restaurant offering, in London’s Covent Garden. Kevin Styles, the then chief executive of Oliver’s restaurants business, was quick to say that the business would steer clear of the UK casual-dining sector because of the “huge pressures” on mid-market restaurants and would “not try to replicate” the rapid expansion of the Jamie’s Italian chain. Loftus concurs that a return of the brand to the UK had not been on the cards. He says: “We haven't been sitting there with a plan to bring Jamie's back to the UK. We’ve been very focused on the international market. We brought Catherine Street to the UK market as a one off. We’ve recently launched our cookery school in John Lewis, which is going really, really well. But our plan was just to double down on the international business, grow our business that way. We’ve evolved Jamie’s Italian massively which is something that's key as well. If you walked into one of our latest Jamie's Italians, it wouldn't feel like anything that existed on the high street before. There's the core DNA, but the design, the food, has evolved massively.”

The germ of an idea to bring back the brand to the UK came from a conversation with Brava Hospitality Group chief executive James Brown, after he asked for a meeting with Oliver. Brown, who took the helm at Prezzo last November after stepping down from overseeing BrewDog’s bars division, says: “It started off with a conversation about just meeting up with Jamie and talking about what we’re doing and what we’re passionate about and about hospitality. I was just a huge fan of Jamie’s Italian when I used to visit as a customer. I had friends that worked there. There was so much positivity around business. When I was on my travels with BrewDog I would be a customer internationally, and would always think ‘why are these not back in the UK? This needs to be solved’. So, we managed to meet up, get along, and that’s how we ended up here.”

For Loftus part of the attraction has been the work that Brown has already carried out re-energising Prezzo Italian, the team he assembled, and “the talent that exists within the Brava business”. He says: “Add to that they are supported by Cain International, which gives them the resources to really invest properly. So, the combination of all those things led us to where we are today.” It is a multi-site partnership, which does not preclude Brava bringing in more of Jamie Oliver’s international restaurant concepts into the UK, but for now, the focus will be on getting that first site right. Loftus says: “We’re going into this trying to make the first site a success, but with a view that we could do more than just Jamie’s Italian. All we’re focused on at the moment is Jamie's Italian.

But should the partnership flourish go well, like we all hope. then conceivably, we could do other concepts. We are very focused on the brilliance, the excitement, the vibrancy, the fantastic food that made Jamie’s Italian great. This will be a new iteration of Jamie's Italian, but all of those characteristics I just described are what the partnership is focused on and just making sure that first site is absolutely brilliant. But there's clearly an opportunity to do more Jamie's Italians. What the growth looks like, will be something me and James and our teams will look at once the first site opens. I think it's just very much predicated on how the public reacts to what we're going to do, and that will kind of determine how fast and where we grow. But it's certainly not to do just one location.” Brown says the wider Brava team will be working on Jamie’s Italian but that he will also look to bring in people dedicated to the brand, including a general manager for the first site, which he sees as a “start-up” in spirit. 

Brown has previously spoken about adding a more premium brand to the group’s portfolio and was one of the interested parties in Gusto Italian last year. And Jamie’s Italian should allow the business to explore more affluent demographics/locations. Any expansion initially will be focused on new sites rather than dip into the current Prezzo Italian estate. Brown says: “Obviously, we have the option of this huge estate of Prezzo sites to look at, but we fundamentally believe that this is a different proposition, and that's why we chose a new site to do the first one. There are no plans as yet to convert any locations. We are looking to talk to landlords about opportunities.” Despite its previous fall from grace, you would expect the brand to be still an attractive proposition to many landlords, especially as more space is set to become available as group’s look to further consolidate their estates, and the latest budget measures are absorbed. 

When talking to Jamie’s Italian previous leadership team, there was always talk of the brand being a double-edged sword. Oliver’s name and fame opened doors and brought consumers in, but it also meant the glare of the spotlight was always harsher, every mistake picked over and highlighted. The work Brown has done in rebooting Prezzo will stand him in good stead and is obviously a key part of the attraction for Oliver and his team, but relaunching Jamie’s Italian will be a step up again. Then again, Brown has previous when working with a founder in the media spotlight and shouldn’t find Oliver as controversial or in the news pages as much as BrewDog co-founder James Watt.

He says: “There's just so much consumer love for Jamie in the country, no matter what happened to the restaurant business. Everyone, maybe not Ed, has been given one of his cookbooks by their family. In my view, I think that people see him as a bit of a national treasure and a huge success story. If you think about the longevity of the messaging, and the consistency of messaging, about the quality of food, everything that comes out of Jamie’s mouth has always been consistent for so many years, I think he's got the trust of the nation. I think that our job is to deliver that operationally and work with Ed and the team and Jamie around the menu, and all the things that we can do to kind of bring back some of that magic that existed back in the day. People were blown away when Jamie's first opened, the people that built that business really understood the magic and hospitality, and that's what we're about.”

Loftus says: “More than 45 million people went through Jamie's Italian. A huge amount of people would have experienced it and loved it, and that's an opportunity in itself. It's a responsibility as well. Everyone's going to have their own memory of their favourite dish. But I think it will hopefully be received well.” 

There are certainly parallels to when Jamie’s Italian first launched in the UK, when the economy and hospitality sector was in a downturn. The concept gave the market a shot in the arm. Just the news that a return is being attempted will not only create a buzz, but like the opening of the Olympia redevelopment, give a sector under the cosh some light and hopefully some momentum. If it goes well, it will be a very exciting prospect for the UK market and provide growth opportunities for both businesses. That Cain is engaged and supportive, and Oliver is trusting Brava with the relaunch of his flagship brand, is a feather in the cap for Brown, and a nod to the work he has done in a short time at Prezzo. Oliver has decided to twist again, there’s plenty of people who will hope it sticks this time.