Restaurant owners have too much on their plate

Energy use, rent, rates, an unfair tip system – if you’re in the restaurant or pub trade, everything can feel stacked against you, writes Chris Blackhurst. With spiralling costs, many owners are now running ‘dark kitchen’ operations and ruing the day they ever went into the industry

Billionaire Richard Caring may be smiling, but many other restaurateurs are struggling just to keep their business open (PA)

As Richard Caring contemplates selling The Ivy Collection restaurant chain and pocketing hundreds of millions of pounds, others in his trade are not so lucky or able.

This Christmas and New Year, plenty of restaurateurs and bar owners are ruing the day they ever went into the industry.

First, Caring. From buying The Ivy and its sister restaurants in 2005, the fashion manufacturer has shown himself to be a dab hand in another sector. Today, Caring, 75, sits atop an empire of restaurants and private members’ clubs, including Annabel’s, Sexy Fish, Scott’s, J Sheekey and The Ivy group.