More than 500 restaurant workers will lose their jobs after the Gaucho restaurant group went into administration. Cau, which is owned by Gaucho and operates 22 outlets across the UK, will close immediately while the 16 Gaucho outlets will remain open while administrators search for a buyer.
“Unfortunately, the Cau brand has struggled in the oversupplied casual dining sector with rapid overexpansion, poor site selection, onerous lease arrangements and a fundamentally poor guest proposition,” said administrator Matt Smith, of Deloitte. “As such, the decision has been made to close this loss-making part of the group with immediate effect, unfortunately resulting in today’s redundancies.”
Smith said that administrators were working to stabilise the Gaucho chain while looking for a buyer. The chain “continues to trade well in its market segment, is profitable and has a strong underlying brand and guest loyalty,” he said.
Gaucho is the latest in a line of high street dining chains to have gone under in the last year. Byron Burgers, Prezzo and Jamie’s Italian have all had well-publicised troubles Restaurants and retailers all across the UK have faced pressure from rising rates, a rising minimum wage as well as a downturn in consumer spending as inflation outstrips wage increases.
