Channel 4 star’s restaurant chain collapses over unpaid debts of £500,000 as TV chef, 61, left ‘heartbroken’
Celebrity chef Simon Rimmer’s restaurant chain has collapsed with more than £500,000 owed to creditors, according to documents filed at Companies House.
The TV chef’s vegetarian restaurant Greens, which first opened in Didsbury, Manchester, in 1990, was forced to shut down in January 2024.
A second branch in Sale, which had only been operating since 2022, followed with its closure in September.
The administrators Begbies Traynor have revealed that creditors will likely go unpaid due to insufficient funds from the administration process.
The business had been a cornerstone of the Didsbury food scene for more than 30 years and was seen as a trailblazer in vegetarian and vegan cuisine.
HMRC is owed the largest sum, with £458,873 in unpaid VAT and PAYE, according to the administrator’s document.
Trade creditors are estimated to be owed £75,067, with three claims totalling £1,923 received by administrators to date.
Customers who purchased restaurant vouchers and gift cards are estimated to be owed £35,790.
The Royal Bank of Scotland was owed £13,164.10 at the time of the administrators’ appointment.
The document filed by Begbies Traynor stated that “in September 2024, the remaining directors accepted that the outstanding debt could not be paid through either trading or time to pay schemes.”
The administrators confirmed that these lenders will remain unpaid due to insufficient funds from the administration process.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Rimmer described the closure as “heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.”
“It was my very first restaurant. I’ve grown up there. I’ve had kids there. I’ve grown from being a boy to a man, started a television career, bought my house off the back of it. Greens was the cornerstone of my life,” he said.
The 61-year-old chef explained that closing both restaurants within 12 months was “the hardest decision of all of my business life.”
Rimmer pointed to wider industry challenges, noting: “It’s not poor operators that are going… when you see that good operators are having to close their doors, that shows that this is a real issue with the industry.”
Rimmer’s journey into the restaurant industry began after initially studying fashion and textile design, when he taught himself to cook.
Opening Greens in 1990 alongside business partner Simon Connolly, the restaurant became the first purely vegetarian establishment to appear in The Good Food Guide.
His television career started with appearances on Granada Breeze and This Morning, before landing a role hosting Something for the Weekend with Tim Lovejoy from 2006 to 2012.
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The pair later moved to Channel 4 to present Sunday Brunch, where Rimmer continues to be a familiar face.
He has also appeared on numerous other shows, including Great British Menu, Celebrity Mastermind and Strictly Come Dancing in 2017.