Luke Oliver Johnson (born 2 February 1962), is a British
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
. He is a former chairman of the
Pizza Express
PizzaExpress is a British multinational restaurant group, owned by a group of bondholders. It has over 470 restaurants across the United Kingdom and 100 overseas in Europe, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, the Philippines, the Unite ...
chain, the
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
and
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
. Johnson calls himself a "
projector
A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer types ...
", in line with the 17th century term for a man involved in many different businesses. He is the part owner and chairman of
Gail's
Gail's is a British bakery and cafe chain, with 100 shops, mostly in the London area.
Gail's was started in the 1990s by Gail Mejia, and opened its first bakery in Hampstead's High Street in 2005. Tom Molnar is the co-founder and CEO of Gail's a ...
bakery and cafe chain, and
Feng Sushi
Feng Sushi is a UK-based restaurant chain known for advocating sustainable fish farming. The company was founded in 1999 by chef Silla Bjerrum and chef Jeremy Rose, with restaurant entrepreneur Luke Johnson the majority owner since 2010.
Bj ...
, among other businesses. He is a former owner of
The Ivy
The Ivy is a British restaurant which is known for being popular with celebrities. It is located on West Street near Cambridge Circus in London, opposite the Ambassadors and St Martin's theatres, making it a popular restaurant for theaterg ...
, Le Caprice and J Sheekey restaurants and a former part owner of
Giraffe Restaurants
Giraffe is a restaurant chain headquartered in Birmingham, England, which was founded in 1998 in Hampstead as Giraffe Restaurants by Juliette Joffe, Russel Joffe and Andrew Jacobs. Giraffe was owned by its founders, with additional financial ba ...
.
Early years
The son of historian
Paul Johnson and of Marigold Johnson. He is the brother of
Daniel Johnson, he spent his early years in
Iver
Iver is a large civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park.
Geography, transport and economy
Part of the 43-square- ...
,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, and was educated at the state run
Langley Grammar School
Langley Grammar School is a co-educational grammar school with academy status, located in Langley, Berkshire, England. It is situated just north of the A4 next to Kedermister Park. Cycle route 61 passes north-south next to the west side of t ...
in
Langley Langley may refer to:
People
* Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name
* Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer
* Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...
,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
, and at
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
.
Whilst at university Johnson together with fellow student
Hugh Osmond
Hugh Edward Mark Osmond (born March 1962) is an entrepreneur and businessman and was the founder of Punch Taverns, one of the UK's largest chains of public houses.
Early life
Hugh Edward Mark Osmond was born in March 1962, the son of a doctor, a ...
(later founder of
Punch Taverns
Punch Pubs & Co is a pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 1,300 leased pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constitu ...
) interviewed
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields.
Branson expressed ...
on his houseboat in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
for the student newspaper. This gave the pair the inspiration to go into business and they began running the ''Era'' nightclub in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. By the time of graduation, he and Osmond were running businesses from software to clubs.
He initially studied medicine but, like Hugh Osmond, only completed the first part of the course, graduating from Oxford University with a BA in Physiological Sciences in 1983. He began his career as a media analyst at
stockbroker
A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...
Grieveson Grant (subsequently
Kleinwort Benson
Kleinwort Benson was a leading investment bank that offered a wide range of financial services from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. Two families, the Kleinworts and the Bensons, founded two different merchant banks in L ...
Securities).
Business career
Patisserie Holdings
Johnson is the former executive chairman, chairman of the remuneration committee and shareholder of Patisserie Holdings, which was the ultimate owner of the trading brands
Patisserie Valerie
Patisserie Valerie is a chain of cafés that operates in the United Kingdom. The chain specialises in cakes, and its menu included continental breakfasts, lunches and teas and coffees. The company went into administration in January 2019, prior t ...
, Druckers Vienna Patisserie, Philpotts, Baker & Spice, and Flour Power City Bakery.
On 19 May 2014 the company was admitted to the
Alternative Investment Market
AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...
.
Fraud investigation at Patisserie Holdings
On 10 October 2018, the company's shares were suspended from trading. An announcement included information that the board had been notified of significant and potentially fraudulent accounting irregularities, that a potential material mis-statement of the company's accounts had significantly impacted the company's cash position, and that Chris Marsh, the chief financial officer, had been suspended from his role. Prior to suspension the business had a market capitalisation of over £500 million.
On 11 October, the company announced that there was a material shortfall between the reported financial status and the current financial status of the business and that without an immediate injection of capital the directors were of the view that there would be no scope for the business to continue trading in its current form. The following day Johnson loaned £10 million to the business, and also provided a £10 million bridging loan to enable the company to execute a share placing, which occurred later the same day.
On 22 January 2019, the firm announced that it had collapsed into administration following failed talks with banks, which the company stated was a "direct result of the significant fraud".
Other business ventures
Since 2000, Johnson has run Risk Capital Partners Ltd, focusing on private equity deals. Risk Capital Partner's portfolio includes the directory publisher Superbrands, fashion chain East, and
GRA, the UK's largest greyhound track owner. East went into administration in January 2018.
In May 2010, Johnson became a strategic investor in Beer & Partners, the UK's largest business investment agency. He is also a director of two theatre production partnerships, Playful Productions and Fiery Dragons, as well as director of AKA UK, a marketing agency to the live entertainment industry. In October 2011, Johnson became a non-executive director of Metro Bank plc. He was a non-executive director of art publisher Phaidon Press from August 2010 to October 2012.
Former investments
In 1996 Johnson co-founded Integrated Dental Holdings, expanding it to become the UK's largest chain of dental surgeries, with over 500 dentists. The firm was sold in 2006 for over £100 million.
From 2004 to 2006 Johnson was director of Dollar Financial Group Inc, a US
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
traded corporation with $80m
EBITDA
A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced , , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, stat ...
.
He was involved in parcel delivery and maritime commerce through Nightfreight and American Port Services.
He served as a non-executive director of Elderstreet VCT plc for ten years. Through Risk Capital Partners, Johnson was a founder, part-owner and director of recruitment business
InterQuest Group plc
InterQuest Group Ltd is a recruitment business that specialises within high growth areas of the new digital economy – information security, analytics, digital, telecom and technology. InterQuest Group operates across all industry sectors with ...
. Risk Capital Partners is also a former investor in advertising and design group Loewy, which was sold in 2006, and formerly a part-owner of fresh fish distributor Seafood Holdings, sold in 2010 for £45m in total. Risk also held a stake in car park technology provider APT controls until 2014.
In February 2013 Johnson became an investor and shareholder in retro confectionery retailers
Hope and Greenwood
Hope and Greenwood is a traditional confectionery business based in London, England.
Origins
Hope and Greenwood was founded in 2004 by husband and wife team Kitty Hope and Mark Greenwood.
Owning a sweetshop was said to have been a "childho ...
,
[The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...]
of the brand to Honeycomb Project Management when Hope and Greenwood entered into
Restaurants in 2004. In 2013 he stepped down as chairman, upon Giraffe's sale to Tesco for a reported £50m.
, with Johnson becoming chairman. They expanded the business from 12 owned restaurants to over 250, and the share price from 40p to over 900p.
After selling the business in 1999 Johnson started Signature Restaurants, a ‘crown jewels’ collection of London restaurants which included
chain. He also started
restaurants from scratch, taking the chain to 30 units. He sold both businesses in 2005; the total proceeds from these two disposals were in excess of £90 million.
...