Jamie Oliver 'had staff sign gagging orders’ as his restaurant empire threatened to collapse

Some of the 600 employees made redundant were expected to sign non-disclosure agreements preventing them talking about celebrity chef or his family

Jamie Oliver (PA)

Jamie Oliver reportedly had staff sign gagging orders as his restaurant empire teetered on the brink of collapse.

More than 600 workers lost their jobs as the well known chef closed 12 of his Jamie’s Italian restaurants in a desperate bid to save the business earlier this year.

Oliver himself pumped £13 million of his own savings to keep the remaining 25 outlets open as the chain struggled with debts of £71.5 million.

"We had simply run out of cash," he told the Financial Times. “And we hadn’t expected it. That is just not normal, in any business. You have quarterly meetings. You do board meetings. People supposed to manage that stuff should manage that stuff.”

As part of a widespread restructuring of Jamie Oliver Group, it emerged that some of the staff made redundant were expected to sign non-disclosure agreements preventing them discussing the celebrity cook of members of his family.

Pertinently, that included brother-in-law Paul Hunt who was brought in to restructure the company in 2015.

Some employees have blamed him for allowing the business to crumble.

One senior figure told The Times at the time: “He’s running the business into the ground, and the day he resigns the staff should have a big party. Everyone at the business adores Jamie and they are very sad about what has happened, but morale is at rock bottom. There have been some wonderful women made redundant. I saw how Hunt eased them out.”

The only critic to go on the record was Tara Donovan, who was the managing director of Jamie Oliver Ltd from 2005 to 2015. She told the Daily Mail she had no problems with the criticism of Mr Hunt.

“Well, I think everything was published that needed to be said,” she said.

Mr Oliver himself – famed for his "pukka’"catchphrase and his war on turkey twizzlers – said Mr Hunt had done an excellent job. He appeared to suggest staff and customers stealing from the restaurants had caused at least some of their problems.

He said: “Paul will step down at the right time but there are times when you need family and you need the thorough trust that family brings. In the kind of game that we’re in — whether it’s restaurants, TV, media — there is always the risk of leakage.

“When there’s dough and cash and stuff getting nicked, if it’s not customers stealing things in the toilets — and napkins — it’s staff and ingredients and bottles of wine. There’s so much leakage everywhere that it becomes normal and acceptable. When you’re genuinely trying to run some decent businesses with some good values, sometimes you’ve got to bring the family in.”

He added that the aim was to make the company profitable within four years.

When approached by The Independent, a spokeswoman for Jamie Oliver said he would not be commenting further.