The Plonker Club

In an article on the Business week website (much more reliable than and English Tabloid!) Gordon Ramsay talks candidly about how bad the last year had been financially, amazing considering how bad 2008 was for him!

In fact, the reality is that Gordon Ramsay’s troubles in 2009 flowed over directly from 2008 and opening eight restaurtants just prior to the global economic crisis (note: owning the restaurants – not just consulting like some of his contempories). This is the story of how Gordon Ramsay Holdings was advised to consolidate their debts and file for bankrupcy – something which Gordon said he would not agree to! Gordon spent the first 3 months of filming Hell’s Kitchen in the USA and then hours at night on the phone with business partner and father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, not to mention early morning runs to ‘burn off the stress!’.

The story also summaries Gordon Ramsay’s current status – twenty restuarants worldwide, five international television shows, twenty three cookbooks (and two biographies) in eighteen languages plus multiple endorsements.

The article also gives some insight into Gordon Ramsay’s television earnings
- In the UK £2 000 000 annually from Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and The F Word.
- £25 000 000 in UK cookbook sales.
- £3 000 000 in endorsements.
- $9 000 000 from US shows.

Check out this great article: Gordon Ramsay’s Recipe for Redemption

Chief Plonker
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite
www.theplonkerclub.com

To the best of our knowledge Gordon Ramsay doesn’t have his own Twitter handle (and I’m here to tell the 25 000 people who signed up for RamseyGordo – that he’s not that bad at spelling! Here are the twitter addresses to date

http://twitter.com/hellskitchenfox – Hells Kitchen on Fox

http://twitter.com/GRamsayHoldings – Gordon Ramsay Holdings – handles most of Gordon’s domestic restaurant marketing and management

http://twitter.com/PlaneFood – Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant/take away spot at Heathrow Airport.

Get-a-tweeting!

Chief Plonker
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite

With the publication of a story by the Wall Street Journal here today, it seems that July’s news of Gordon Ramsay profits down 90% are back in the headlines and white hot on Twitter! Surprisingly, this bastion of Financial Reporting seems to tell us nothing new from two months ago and may still only tell half the story! To my untrained eye, it seems that they have just edited togther the news from a few months ago along with some statements from a media interview.

In short, the article made the following allegations about Gordon Ramsay Holdings (including several statements that he has made months earlier in the UK and Australia! – great job!)

* That they had left the Prague Restaurant

* Returned ownership of Restaurants to the hotels that they are housed in Los Angeles and Paris

* Fired about 15% of his roughly 1,200-person staff

* Consolidating menus making them more cost effective and less pretentious

* Invested his own money which included selling his Ferrari (which he told an Australian reporter wasn’t an issue since he was getting the new one coming out the following month)

The Wall Street Journal Article Online

It seems though that a not so well publicised article released around the time of the original furore in July stated that reporters were openly getting half the story! This article tells us that many Gordon Ramsay Enterprises aren’t listed on the profit and loss sheets of Gordon Ramsay Holdings – such as Foxtrot Oscar, Plane Food, Murano or the York and Albany, not to mention the two newest pubs, The Warrington and The Devonshire. Interestingly, it states that Gordon Ramsay Holdings did ‘front’ some of the capital for these ventures and thus the expenses would appear without any return on investment – to the sum of at least £15 million. It seems that if the Wall Street Journal also looked at the figures of Gordon Ramsay Holdings International (which accounts for some domestic Gordon Ramsay Enterprises).

Get the full story here

The Plonker Club has emailed the author of the Wall Street Journal piece to clarify whether they had made the same mistake most of the worldwide media had made a few months ago – stay tuned!

Chief Plonker
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite
www.theplonkerclub.com

Believe it or not, Gordon Ramsay Holdings is finally going where Jamie Oliver has been for years and are now embracing technology. We all know that www.gordonramsay.com is rarely upadted with much relevant, which is why this website was started, but it seems that someone at GRH has heard the cry and is now Twittering on behalf of the Restaurant empire.

At the time of writing Gordon Ramsay Holding (who’s Twitter handle is GRamsayHoldings) has 325 followers whereas Jamie Oliver has 157,998! It is not the prettiest nor the best branded page, but it is a start!

Anyway, the updates are great, specials at vaeious Gordon ramsay restaurants, notice on where shows are airing all over the world! The address for sign up is http://twitter.com/GRamsayHoldings and while you are there you will obviously want to sign up for the Plonker Club twitter feed as well, at http://twitter.com/ThePlonkerClub – we have 646 followers!!

Great to hear that GRH are embracing social media and Web 2.0, so support them and start clicking!

Chief Plonker
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite
www.theplonkerclub.com

After a long and tumultuous, it has been confirmed by Gordon Ramsay Holdings CEO and father of wife Tana Ramsay – Chris Hutcheson, that the long-standing relationship has been officially terminated.

As reported by PR Weekly (http://www.prweek.com/uk/home/article/873597/ramsay-farrow-split-/), Gordon Ramsay and publicist Gary Farrow have ended their professional partnership. Farrow who is CEO of The Corporation, according to the report had no comment.

The report continues to say that Farrow would not be replaced and that Gordon Ramsay would retain Sauce Communications for his public relations in the UK.

David Driscoll
Chief Plonker at The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite

www.theplonkerclub.com