Jamie Oliver and his partner Jools have paid themselves £6.8m in dividends after his firms’ full earnings rose by just about a fifth.

The Jamie Oliver Group said earnings had been boosted by the celeb chef’s TV assortment Jamie’s £1 Wonders, which Channel 4 launched in response to the worth of residing catastrophe.

An widespread of 1.4 million viewers tuned in, along with a higher-than-usual proportion of 16 to 35-year-olds, it said.

A spokesperson for the group of companies confirmed the couple acquired the payout remaining yr after it reported pre-tax earnings of £7.7m in 2022, up 17.5% on 2021.

Earnings was moreover improved by his range of meals merchandise, cookery faculty programs, totally different TV assortment Jamie’s One Pan Wonders, a promotional partnership with Tesco, and Oliver’s cookbook ONE, which has purchased two million copies to date.

It marks a turnaround from when Oliver’s UK restaurant chain, Jamie’s Italian, collapsed in 2018 with cash owed of as a lot as £83m.

Directors later revealed it led to the lack of 1,000 jobs and the closure of twenty-two branches. Oliver acquired a dividend price of £5.2m from his enterprise empire sooner than the collapse.

However since then his worldwide restaurant franchise enterprise has grown to higher than 70 retailers in 23 worldwide places – with the chef planning to relaunch inside the UK with a model new eatery in London’s Covent Backyard later this yr.

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The group’s chief govt, Kevin Kinds, said: “The Jamie Oliver model continues to resonate with audiences all over the world.

“We plan to hold collectively all sides of our group, along with media, consuming locations, merchandise and the Ministry of Meals, with a sturdy digital transformation plan.”

Mr Kinds added that the enterprise empire consider to enter new markets and wished to “maximise our model’s business and social influence”.

Talking earlier this yr about his plans to re-enter the British restaurant commerce, Oliver said: “Shedding my UK eating places was doubtless one of many hardest instances of my life.

“However being a optimistic part of the restaurant enterprise could also be very close to my coronary coronary heart. We learnt courses as we grew the worldwide consuming locations…

“So I’m very excited to open this restaurant in London and with an distinctive crew, as soon as once more, serve the general public.”