{"id":425953,"date":"2026-02-14T20:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425953\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T20:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:59:07","slug":"uk-restaurant-chain-cuts-244-jobs-after-plunging-into-administration-22-branches-closed-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425953\/","title":{"rendered":"UK restaurant chain cuts 244 jobs after plunging into administration – 22 branches closed | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major fast food chain Leon<\/a> has slashed 244 jobs after collapsing into administration<\/a> in December. The popular restaurant<\/a> chain, famed for its halloumi burgers and waffle fries, was forced to shut 22 locations following the collapse.<\/p>\n

However, there seems to be no respite on the horizon yet, as an update from administrators<\/a> Quantuma Advisory said the company now has just 573 staff. It had losses of \u00a312.5million in 2023, \u00a38.3million in 2024, and almost \u00a310million on draft figures for 2025. The chain\u00a0had built its reputation on natural,\u00a0fast-casual food. However, the company has struggled in the wake of being sold for \u00a3100million to Asda<\/a> owner, EG Group, in 2021.<\/p>\n

At the height of its success, Leon operated 85 restaurants across the UK and internationally in 2022. Under the Issa brothers, British-Indian billionaire businessmen who founded the group, it also expanded aggressively into petrol forecourts and Asda supermarket sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its co-founder, John Vincent, bought the business back from Asda<\/a> in October last year. Mr Vincent blamed \u201cincreasingly unsustainable taxes\u201d but also said Leon had moved away from its \u201ccore values\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last two years, Asda had bigger fish to fry, and Leon was always a business they didn\u2019t feel fitted their strategy,\u201d he said, adding\u00a0that he hoped to be \u201cproviding jobs to many more people once we have returned to profitability and can continue to grow again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Leon previously said it would try to redeploy staff to other restaurants, offer redundancy where that is not possible and also set up a route for affected employees to apply for jobs at Pret A Manger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Administrators have proposed a company voluntary agreement (CVA), which\u00a0is a way of restructuring that means a\u00a0business can continue trading by negotiating its debts. Administrators have also been negotiating with landlords for reduced rent.<\/p>\n

Leon was founded in 2004 by John Vincent, Henry Dimbleby, and chef Allegra McEvedy. Their first outlet opened on London\u2019s Carnaby Street with a mission to prove that “fast food” didn’t have to mean “junk food”. They called it “naturally fast food,” focusing on Mediterranean<\/a>-inspired, seasonal ingredients. Within six months, it was named the “Best New Restaurant in Great Britain” by The Observer.<\/p>\n

The founders were also heavily involved in UK food policy, with Mr Dimbleby and Mr Vincent co-authoring the Government’s School Food Plan<\/a> in 2013 to improve children’s diets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major fast food chain Leon has slashed 244 jobs after collapsing into administration in December. The popular restaurant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[156299,156301,13866,724,84,156300,156296,2195,59,156297,156304,15300,156302,24631,156303,3783,1125,56,54,55,156298],"class_list":{"0":"post-425953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-22-restaurants-shut","9":"tag-573-staff","10":"tag-administration","11":"tag-asda","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-cut-244-jobs","14":"tag-eg-group-acquisition","15":"tag-employment","16":"tag-gb","17":"tag-halloumi-burgers","18":"tag-issa-brothers","19":"tag-job-cuts","20":"tag-john-vincent","21":"tag-pret-a-manger","22":"tag-quantuma-advisory","23":"tag-restaurants","24":"tag-store-closures","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-unitedkingdom","28":"tag-waffle-fries"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}