Antony Worrall Thompson forced to close restaurants

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has been forced to close four of his restaurants after his business, AWT Restaurants, went into administration last week.

The Ready Steady Cook and Saturday Kitchen star cited an "unexpected but decisive fall in revenue across the business from September 2008" as the reason for the collapse of his business.

Worrall Thompson added that the decision was taken after he failed to raise £200,000 from his bank to tide over the firm.

The development comes after the chef was forced to shut his Greyhound pub in Berkshire last month.

Worrall Thompson has turned to personal savings to keep control of two other restaurants and delicatessen, the Windsor Grill in Berkshire, the Kew Grill in South-west London and the Windsor Larder.

He said the decision to go into administration had not been taken lightly.

"The company started in 1997 with Notting Grill launching in 2001 and since then we have all worked hard to build a loyal team of employees, grow the business and create solid relationships with our suppliers," he said.

"Even though November and December sales were down on the previous year, five of the seven businesses were profitable. However, the first quarter of the year is always a hard one in the hospitality business and additional funding was required to ease our continuing cash flow issues.

"Our request for funds has not been supported, making administration a difficult decision but an unavoidable one."

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By Kerstin Kühn

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