Jamie Oliver and his spouse Jools have paid themselves £6.8m in dividends after his corporations' whole income rose by nearly a fifth.

The Jamie Oliver Group stated earnings have been boosted by the movie star chef's TV sequence Jamie's £1 Wonders, which Channel 4 launched in response to the cost of living disaster.

An common of 1.4 million viewers tuned in, together with a higher-than-usual proportion of 16 to 35-year-olds, it stated.

A spokesperson for the group of firms confirmed the couple obtained the payout final 12 months after it reported pre-tax income of £7.7m in 2022, up 17.5% on 2021.

Income was additionally improved by his vary of meals merchandise, cookery faculty lessons, different TV sequence Jamie's One Pan Wonders, a promotional partnership with Tesco, and Oliver's cookbook ONE, which has bought two million copies to this point.

It marks a turnaround from when Oliver's UK restaurant chain, Jamie's Italian, collapsed in 2018 with money owed of as much as £83m.

Administrators later revealed it led to the loss of 1,000 jobs and the closure of 22 branches. Oliver obtained a dividend payment of £5.2m from his enterprise empire earlier than the collapse.

But since then his worldwide restaurant franchise enterprise has grown to greater than 70 retailers in 23 international locations - with the chef planning to relaunch within the UK with a brand new eatery in London's Covent Garden later this 12 months.

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The group's chief govt, Kevin Styles, stated: "The Jamie Oliver model continues to resonate with audiences around the globe.

"We plan to carry collectively all features of our group, together with media, eating places, merchandise and the Ministry of Food, with a powerful digital transformation plan."

Mr Styles added that the enterprise empire deliberate to enter new markets and needed to "maximise our brand's commercial and social impact".

Speaking earlier this 12 months about his plans to re-enter the British restaurant commerce, Oliver stated: "Losing my UK restaurants was without doubt one of the hardest times of my life.

"But being a constructive a part of the restaurant trade could be very near my coronary heart. We learnt classes as we grew the worldwide eating places...

"So I'm very excited to open this restaurant in London and with an exceptional team, once again, serve the public."