Oliver blames Sydney’s lock out laws and pizza issues for restaurant problems

Jamie Oliver is best known as the TV chef-turned-best-selling author who has amassed a fortune thanks to his creative culinary masterpieces.

But it’s a different story when it comes to running a business.

One of the reasons he says why his restaurant franchise has struggled in Australia is because of Sydney's lock-out laws.

Another was his failure to listen to what diners really want.

Talking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Jamie went into some detail about what happened after Keystone, the local operator for his Australian franchise, collapsed.

“I went in and saved on the first kind of bit of trouble that we had with Keystone,' Jamie told the newspapers, talking about the situation after the company went under in 2016.

“Which was obviously a shame because they were being run beautifully. They were great restaurants but we got dragged down with the nightclub scenario.”

According to the piece, Jamie cited Sydney's lock-out laws. These he said affected Keystone's liquor venues. “That's the reality of what happened,” he said.

He says one of the lessons he learned from the Aussie venue was that he had to listen to what diners wanted to eat.

“They all really want a good pizza and I'm like: 'No, no, you get pizza at a pizzeria, that's what happens in Italy.' And the truth is, they don't give a s**t,” he told the newspaper.

“They want what they want so I've had to take a humble pill.

“I was a bit holier than thou.”

After launching it in 2011, Keystone ran Jamie’s Italian Australian chain for five years before it had run into problems in 2016.

The Canberra venue has shut down. But Jamie still has venues operating in Sydney's CBD, Parramatta, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Globally, the business is still going and it employs 2000 members of staff across Jamie’s 25 restaurants all around the world

Leon Gettler - 20 August 2018