The Plonker Club

A new marketing campaign is promoting cheap meals at Gordon Ramsay restaurants throughout the UK. At the time of writing lastminute.com has discounts at six of the numerous eateries within the Gordon Ramsay empire (as well as having great reviews, photos and general information about each location). On offer until February 28 were the following bargains;

foxtrot oscar, london 2 or 3 courses from £18

the warrington, london 2 courses for £18

boxwood cafe, london 2 courses for £21

the devonshire 2 or 3 courses from £18

the narrow 2 or 3 courses from £18

the york and albany 3 courses for £20

At another website TopTable.com, all of the Gordon Ramsay restaurants are similarly profiled (as well as being ranked) and currently the only deal on offer is at:

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