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Jamie Oliver restaurants in administration – list of closures & your gift card rights

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Callum Mason
Callum Mason
News Reporter
22 May 2019

Jamie Oliver's restaurant chain – which includes Jamie's Italian, Barbecoa and Fifteen – have collapsed into administration, and the administrators KPMG have closed 22 of his 25 eateries.

Closure notices were displayed in the windows of branches across the country on Tuesday and about 1,000 staff have been made redundant.

We've help below on what to do if you have a gift card or voucher for one of the restaurants, plus a full list of closures. Also see our Administration Help guide.

I've got a gift card or e-voucher – what can I do?

Insolvency law means it's perfectly legal for a firm to stop accepting gift vouchers and gift cards if it goes into administration, which is why we always warn that buying them can be risky. See our Gift cards and vouchers guide for more info.

We've contacted KPMG and it's told us that it is currently looking into what to do for customers with gift cards or vouchers. So for now, it's not clear if you'll get money back, or if you'll be able to spend vouchers at one of the three restaurants which will remain open. We'll update this story when we have more info.

If gift cards aren't honoured and yours was bought with a credit or debit card, you – or the purchaser, if this wasn't you – could try to claim the money back off the card provider.

There are two ways of doing this:

  • Section 75 is legal protection. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, the card company's equally liable for £100+ purchases, and you may be able to claim your money back from it. See our Section 75 guide for full help.

  • Chargeback is a customer service promise rather than legal obligation – so banks can't be forced to pay out. Under this lesser-known scheme, you can try to claim if you made a credit card purchase worth under £100 or a debit or prepaid card purchase of any value (though if you used a Mastercard you must have spent at least £10).

    Chargeback claims must usually be put in within 120 days of making a purchase. It's worth noting that under chargeback you receive a refund from your bank and it later claims the money back from the company itself.

    Companies have 45 days to challenge the claim and if they do so successfully, your bank could 'claw back' the refund – so if you get a refund via chargeback, check from what date it will be yours without the risk of it being taken back. See our Chargeback guide for full info.

It's unclear if either of these two reclaim methods will work, but it may be worth giving it a go.

What if I've paid in advance for a reservation?

We've asked KPMG what will happen to customers who have put money down to secure restaurant reservations and we'll update this story when we hear back. Money didn't typically have to be paid for smaller bookings, but large groups sometimes had to pay a deposit.

Again, you could try reclaiming money from your card provider, as outlined above.

Full list of restaurant closures

The following Jamie's Italian restaurants have closed as a result of the administration:

  • Birmingham

  • Brighton

  • Cambridge

  • Cardiff

  • Edinburgh

  • Glasgow

  • Guildford

  • Leeds

  • Liverpool

  • London (Islington)

  • London (Covent Garden)

  • London (London Bridge)

  • London (Piccadilly)

  • London (Victoria)

  • London (Westfield White City)

  • London (Westfield Stratford)

  • Manchester

  • Nottingham

  • Oxford

  • York

Barbecoa in the One New Change shopping centre, London, and Fifteen, in Hoxton, London, have also closed.

Jamie's Italian, Jamie's Italian Coffee Lounge and Jamie Oliver's Diner at Gatwick Airport will remain open.

The administration process doesn't affect Jamie Oliver's other companies.

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Jamie Oliver restaurants in administration – list of closures & your gift card rights

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