A Second Act with the Global Director of Jamie Oliver Group

Ed Loftus on bringing Jamie's Italian back to the UK, scaling Jamie Oliver Group to 80+ sites in 24 countries, and the discipline behind a real second act.

Very few people in UK hospitality ever get to attempt a real second act. Jamie Oliver Group has just done it: Jamie's Italian back in Leicester Square in March 2026, seven years after the 2019 administration that closed the UK estate. The man who's been at the company through all of it (nearly 15 years, employee number one of the post-2019 strategy) is Ed Loftus, Global Director of Jamie Oliver Restaurants. In this episode he walks Conor through what it actually took to get here: building globally first (80+ sites, 24 countries, 7 brand formats), the franchise-first pivot, the partnership architecture behind the UK return (Brava Hospitality Group with Cain International), and a 30% smaller menu doubling down on fresh pasta made on premises every day. Plus 16 global partners, a head office that's banned PDFs, why "my Jamie is not your Jamie" matters when scaling a celebrity-chef brand, the John Lewis Cookery School partnership, and Ed's frank case that "people" is the operational metric most operators ignore.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A good brand doesn't necessarily make a good business. The 2019 UK administration wasn't a demand problem, it was a flexibility-and-capital problem
• Build globally first, then come back home. Jamie Oliver Group spent six years proving the model in 24 countries before relaunching in the UK
• Franchising is a marriage. Partner selection is the single most important decision; the right partners weather macro shocks together
• Simplicity scales. Complexity does not. The technology backbone (digital intranet, no PDFs, LMS, sentiment) starts from that principle
• Don't recreate the past. When a brand returns to market after a setback, the question isn't what to bring back, it's how the strongest attributes should show up in today's market

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro: what a genuine second act looks like in hospitality

2:43 Welcome, Ed

3:12 From chef to global director: 15 years across kitchens, multi-site, commercial

6:42 The scale today: 80+ sites, 24 countries, 7 brand formats

7:32 Reading the 2019 administration: not demand, but flexibility and capital

10:35 Why he stayed: Jamie himself, the brand, and a challenge worth taking

11:16 Post-2019 strategy: franchise-first, employee number one, building a team

14:54 Localising a celebrity-chef brand without losing the DNA

18:05 The technology backbone: digital SOPs, LMS, sentiment, no PDFs

20:33 Franchising as a marriage: partner selection is everything

22:18 The UK return: how the Brava Hospitality Group partnership came together

25:18 What's different at the new Jamie's Italian: design, menu, fresh pasta

29:23 Multi-zoned spaces and the modern casual-dining environment

31:16 Building experiences outside the venue: John Lewis Cookery School

34:00 Working with Jamie: a creative force who lived the kitchens

37:20 What a week in the global director's life looks like

39:24 The 200-site ambition and what has to go right

40:43 The Quick Turn: rapid-fire questions

45:29 Shift Notes: Conor's closing reflections

USEFUL LINKS & RESOURCES

• Ed Loftus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edloftus/
• Jamie Oliver Group: https://www.jamieolivergroup.com/
• Jamie's Italian: https://jamiesitalian.co.uk/
• Brava Hospitality Group: https://www.bravahospitalitygroup.com/
• Cain International: https://cainint.com/
• John Lewis Cookery School with Jamie: https://www.johnlewis.com/our-services/jamie-oliver-cooking-school

CONNECT WITH THE SHOW

• All What's Cooking episodes: https://www.nory.ai/podcasts
• Nory: https://www.nory.ai/
• Nory blog: https://www.nory.ai/blog
• Nory on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asknory/
• Conor Sheridan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheridanconor/