Petersham Nurseries has blamed Brexit, rising rents and the Budget for the closure of two central Italian London restaurants.
The family that owns the celebrity haunt Petersham Nurseries in Richmond said its two Covent Garden sister restaurants will shut for for good.
La Goccia and The Petersham restaurants - both on Floral Court off Floral Street - closed their doors 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, said the decision was taken 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 company told the Telegraph it blamed Brexit for an “inability to recruit people with the right experience and skills”.
Petersham UK, which ran the two restaurants in Covent Garden, had already 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. Petersham Nurseries faced a substantial rent, rate and service charge bill of around £1.2 million a year,
The closures only relate 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.
Jo Milner, of liquidators Buchler Phillips, which is overseeing the closures, said: “This is 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.”
The Boglione family launched the Petersham brand in the early Noughties from their home at Petersham House - a 17th century mansion by the Thames just outside Richmond that was used as a location for the new Bridget Jones movie.
