Petersham Nurseries blames Brexit and the Budget as its restaurants close
The family behind Petersham Nurseries has blamed Brexit, Covid and the Budget as it announced it was closing its two Covent Garden restaurants for good.
Floral Court restaurants, part of the Petersham Nurseries empire, said that La Goccia and The Petersham restaurants shut for the last time on Sunday following six years of operation.
Management said they had 'struggled to reconcile revenues with fixed property costs and debts, business rates and recent increases in staff costs and the looming impact of the recent Budget'.
Lara Boglione, the daughter of the company's founders who now runs Petersham Nurseries, took the decision to close the two restaurants after months exploring options 'in view of the significant cost challenges they have faced, in addition to legacy issues relating to the trading impact of Covid and Brexit.'
The Telegraph reported last month that Petersham UK, which ran the two restaurants in Covent Garden, had declared in High Court filings that it planned to appoint administrators. This gave it breathing space while attempting to negotiate lower rents with landlord Shaftesbury Capital.
The closures only relates to The Petersham and La Goccia, and not the wider Petersham Nurseries business, which includes a garden nursery, lifestyle shop and a Michelin Green-starred restaurant in Richmond.
The Boglione family launched the Petersham brand in the early 2000s from their home Petersham House – a 17th-century property in Richmond.
After taking over the neighbouring garden nursery in 2000, Italian entrepreneur Francesco and his wife, Gael, set about establishing Petersham Nurseries, which opened its doors in 2002. It has since become known as one of the UK's most luxurious garden centres, selling everything from £180 secateurs to £85 planters.
The Bogliones – whose friends are also said to include Richard E Grant – still live at Petersham House, where they have an extensive private collection of art including pieces by Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Antony Gormley.
Lara Boglione, the couple's daughter, took over the day-to-day running of the business in 2011 and broadened out the family empire to also include a wine merchant called Petersham Cellars.
She was also the driving force behind the family's decision to open their Covent Garden restaurants in 2018.
Ms Boglione said: 'We are hugely proud of what we have achieved. We look forward to welcoming our loyal Covent Garden customers to our beautiful sister restaurant in Richmond. Nonetheless, faced with unsustainably high costs, is it time to move on and consider new locations. We look forward to reporting better news in due course.'
News of their closure comes weeks before higher employer National Insurance contributions come into effect. Oxford Economics has predicted that the tax rise could cost 55,000 jobs.
Andrew Goodwin, of Oxford Economics, said: 'Sectors with the greatest reliance on lower-paying roles, such as hospitality, art and recreation, and wholesale and retail, look highly vulnerable to job losses.'
Jo Milner, of liquidators Buchler Phillips, which is overseeing the closures, said: 'This is a clearly disappointing for La Goccia and The Petersham, which, in other circumstances, could once again be a stable business, in line with others in the Petersham Nurseries group.
'It's a very difficult landscape: last year almost 3,500 hospitality businesses became insolvent against a background of tight consumer spending and growing staff costs as a result of the Budget.'
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