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In 1993, Johnson and Osmond took control of Pizza Express, 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 The Ivy and Le Caprice, as well as the
twenty-two
bakeries in London and sells its products through Waitrose, Harvey Nichols and Ocado. In June 2013 he became chairman and 50% owner of Grand Union, a London bar chain. Johnson is also the majority owner of contract catering firm Genuine Dining. In May 2015, Risk Capital Partners announced its purchase of a majority stake in Zoggs, the global swimming products brand. In 2016 he acquired a 12.5% stake in Elegant Hotels Group. He joined the board of Elegant Hotels as a non-executive director in May 2017. In November 2019, it was revealed that Johnson had hired bankers to prepare the sale of Gail's.
Luke Oliver Johnson (born 2 February 1962), is a British
"> later selling the 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 t ...
. He is a former chairman of the Pizza Express 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 Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
. 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 typ ...
", 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 bakery and cafe chain, and Feng Sushi, among other businesses. He is a former owner of The Ivy, Le Caprice and J Sheekey restaurants and a former part owner of Giraffe Restaurants.
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,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-e ...
, and was educated at the state run Langley Grammar School in Langley, 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 Ber ...
, 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 ...
.
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, ...
(later founder of Punch Taverns) 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 List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...
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 stock ...
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 ...
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 brandsPatisserie 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 USNASDAQ
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 "child ...
,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 ...intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
of the brand to Honeycomb Project Management when Hope and Greenwood entered into administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
in 2015.
Luke Johnson became chairman and part-owner of Giraffe
The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, '' Giraffa camelopardal ...
Restaurants in 2004. In 2013 he stepped down as chairman, upon Giraffe's sale to Tesco for a reported £50m.
Restaurants and leisure
In 1993, Johnson and Osmond took control of Pizza Express, 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 The Ivy and Le Caprice, as well as the Belgo
Belgo was a chain of London restaurants specializing in simple Belgian cooking and Belgian beer. There were five Belgo restaurants: Belgo Centraal (Covent Garden), Belgo Holborn, Belgo Kings Cross, Belgo Nottingham and Belgo Bromley ; following ...
chain. He also started Strada
Strada is a chain based in the United Kingdom of branded restaurants specialising in Italian cuisine with two Strada sites and six Coppa Clubs, all in Southern England.
History
The concept was spawned by Luke Johnson in 2000 and, over five y ...
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.
Whilst chairman of the Belgo group, Johnson took part in the BBC programme "''Back to the Floor''", a programme in which top executives spent a week at the "coal face" of their business. Some reviewers of the programme were uncomplimentary about Johnson.
From 1993 to date, Johnson has been involved as director and/or owner of various companies in retailing, pubs and bars, including Whittard of Chelsea, My Kinda Town and the private companies Giraffe, Druckers and Baker & Spice. The latter two businesses became part of Patisserie Holdings. In December 2009, Johnson's investment partnership Risk Capital Partners
Risk Capital Partners LLP is a London-based private equity firm, co-founded in 2001 by Ben Redmond and Luke Johnson. The firm invests in numerous sectors, including leisure, retail, media, healthcare, IT services, financial services and support ...
Ltd acquired the Tootsie's restaurant chain, for which it was awarded the "Deal of the Year" prize at the 2010 Retailer's Retailer Awards ceremony. Johnson also purchased in 2010 a stake in artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
bakery Flour Power City, which supplies restaurants, hotels, and caterers. Flour Power City also operates stalls in locations such as Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
Market in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...
. This business also became part of Patisserie Holdings.
September 2010 saw Johnson purchase Feng Sushi, a London-based chain of Japanese restaurants specialising in home delivery. In the same month he also purchased a majority stake in casual-dining firm Ego Group, which was merged in April 2011 with pizza business Rocket Restaurants to form 3Sixty Restaurants, with Johnson as chairman.
In May 2011, Risk Capital Partners assumed a shareholding in Bread Ltd. The group includes retail bakery and cafe Gail's, which hatwenty-two
bakeries in London and sells its products through Waitrose, Harvey Nichols and Ocado. In June 2013 he became chairman and 50% owner of Grand Union, a London bar chain. Johnson is also the majority owner of contract catering firm Genuine Dining. In May 2015, Risk Capital Partners announced its purchase of a majority stake in Zoggs, the global swimming products brand. In 2016 he acquired a 12.5% stake in Elegant Hotels Group. He joined the board of Elegant Hotels as a non-executive director in May 2017. In November 2019, it was revealed that Johnson had hired bankers to prepare the sale of Gail's.
Business approach
Among Johnson's business maxims are that, consciously or not, every successful company that he knows has followedkaizen
is concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. ''Kaizen'' also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross orga ...
, the Japanese management philosophy of constant, incremental improvements, often driven from the bottom up.
Politics
Johnson supportedBrexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...
and backed the Vote Leave campaign group in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum
The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
. Johnson has described the government's response to COVID-19 as "a campaign of fear" and in November 2020 Risk Capital Partners funded a media consultant for the COVID Recovery Group
The COVID Recovery Group (CRG) is an informal group of Conservative Party (UK), Conservative MPs in the United Kingdom who opposed the UK government's decision to introduce a second period of lockdown measures for England during the COVID-19 pan ...
of anti-lockdown MPs.
Journalism and media
Johnson was chairman ofChannel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
Television Corporation from January 2004 to January 2010, during which time he appointed a new CEO, restructured the board and saw the organisation enjoy record ratings, revenues and surplus.
He writes a weekly column on business for ''The Sunday Times''. He wrote a weekly essay for the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' from 2007 to 2015. From 1998 to 2006 he wrote "The Maverick", a weekly business column for ''The Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings.
It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', ...
''. An anthology of "The Maverick" columns was published by Harriman House in 2007.
Johnson serves on the advisory board of cultural and political magazine '' Standpoint''.
Other activities
Johnson is chairman of theInstitute of Cancer Research
The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Ma ...
, assuming that role in August 2013.
He is a former chairman of 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 ...
, completing a three-year term in October 2012. He was governor of The University of the Arts between 2000 and 2006. He was also chairman of Action on Addiction from 2011 to 2012. In June 2012, Johnson was appointed chairman of Startup Britain
StartUp Britain is a national campaign founded by a group of eight British entrepreneurs to encourage enterprise in the UK.
The campaign was launched on 28 March, 2011 by then Prime Minister David Cameron with the support of then Chancellor, Geo ...
, the national campaign to stimulate start-up growth in the UK. Johnson is also chairman of Career Colleges, an organisation planning 40 vocational colleges for 14- to 19-year-olds.
In October 2013, Johnson co-founded and launched the Centre for Entrepreneurs, a non-profit think-tank aiming to address the "...under-represention of entrepreneurs in the public eye" and to "...promote entrepreneurship to government, media, the private sector (including big businesses) and the general public."
With Stephen Lambert and Christopher Hird, Johnson co-produced ''The Flaw'', a 2011 documentary film detailing the events leading up to the financial crash of 2008. The film takes its title from Alan Greenspan's admission to US Congress that he had been mistaken to put so much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets.
Personal life
Johnson is married to Liza. They have three children.Publications
* ''Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business is Easier Than You Think'' – * ''The Maverick'' – * ''Betting to Win'' – * ''The Key to Making Money in the New Stock Market'' – * ''How to get a Highly Paid Job in the City'' – * ''30 Ways to Make Money in Franchising'' – * ''30 Ways to Make Money in Property'' –References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Luke 1962 births Living people People educated at Langley Grammar School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Place of birth missing (living people) English businesspeople British Eurosceptics People associated with the Institute of Cancer Research People from Buckinghamshire Chairmen of Channel 4