Richard Caring Hits Suppliers with ‘Discount’ in the Middle of Sales Talks

Thursday 12 June 2025 19:19

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Richard Caring Restaurant Empire, which includes Ivy Collection and Caprice Holdings, has demanded that suppliers take 2.5 percent “Discount”, blame “Increasing tax burden and work costs, indirect product costs [and] service and also direct food and beverage costs. “

In a letter dated June 3, signed by the head of indirect procurement and Richard Caring drink, Jeremy Evans, the company said: “Our business works hard to reduce costs as far as possible to maintain the value of money and relevance to guests. If our business will grow and increase, we hope your business will also benefit.

“This mandatory discount is applied in response to the increase in trading costs at this time. We ask all our suppliers to work with us because we support each other through this difficult period. Discounts will be applied from the next salary payment available and will remain until further notice.”

A company spokesman told City AM: “The letter makes it very clear that if there are suppliers who have concerns, they must contact us and we will talk to them.”

This step was carried out in the middle of Richard Caring’s rumors in advanced talks to sell £ 1 billion in Troia, the company behind the Ivy collection, with Abu Dhabi Royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan who was understood, according to the Financial Times.

The sale can include shares in the London Annabel’s icon, George Club and Harry’s Bar and The Ivy Collection, which operate more than 40 restaurants in the UK and Ireland.

His financial account for 2023, published in April seven months after the Companies House deadline, showed that Caprice Holdings shed 300 jobs. Profit before tax rose from £ 29 million to £ 37.6 million and revenue increased from £ 302.9 million to £ 314.7 million over the same period.

Caring has up to 50 percent of shares in this business, with other shareholders including former Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Bin-Jabber Al-Thani.

An industrial expert told City whether they believed that a letter to suppliers could be an effort to increase margin to help increase company opportunities to achieve ambitious sales.

Earlier this week Tomas Minkley, former Operation Director at Ivy Collection, said he was sure that Ivy’s expansion had damaged the reputation of the mainstay restaurant. Chief Operating Officer Bob Bob Ricard told City AM: “I think you will be stupid thinking. The reality is that everyone knows it has made a little impact on the business. It would be interesting to see when the business was sold whether the original superior at the Covent Garden was part of the sale. For me, they were two completely different businesses, and they had to be treated as two businesses.

The restaurant business is experiencing unprecedented pressure. This month the restaurant owner James Robson told City Am that the current government is “really killing” the sector. The founder of Fallow, Roe and Fowl said: “This government has gotten rid of almost every international person with money … What they have done to business has really killed us. They have scored the international wealth of London.

“I will delete the tariff, really destroy it, because it is unfair. We compete with the shipping company that has a dark kitchen in the basement and does not pay taxes in this country. I will reduce VAT on food and drinks. And I will stop taxing people who create jobs.”

Michelin starred in the Tom Sellers chef echoing the sentiment in the exclusive city interview of AM this month. When asked what challenges faced by this sector, he said: “Work from home culture, people who do not come to the city, the company’s money is cut off, people only feel extortion in general with a basic level of interest, national insurance increase. There are so many factors. We find ourselves, with inflation, production costs, labor costs, we are fortunate if we make 10p on pounds.”