EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Jamie Oliver's company boss quits scarcely two years after replacing chef's brother-in-law as chief executive of restaurant empire
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With its great hall, gables and priest hole, there can be few more splendidly atmospheric settings for a family Christmas than Spains Hall, the magnificent Elizabethan pile which Jamie Oliver and his wife, Jools, snapped up for £6million in 2019. But, as the couple and their five children settle down for days of yuletide feasting in rooms now festooned with fairy lights and hung with mistletoe, might they be stalked by the Ghost of Christmas (very recently) Past?.
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The question’s prompted by what appears to be the entirely unscripted departure of Oliver’s chief executive, Kevin Styles, 52, who took up the post as recently as 2022, amid great fanfare about a five-year plan he’d developed after six months’ unsparing analysis of Oliver’s empire.
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That was in the aftermath of the shattering failure of Jamie’s chain of Italian restaurants, which had collapsed in 2019 with debts of £83million, leaving scores of small suppliers thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of pounds out of pocket.
![[Heiress Ivy Getty enjoys wild 30th birthday party after her marriage split. The great-granddaughter of billionaire J. Paul Getty wore a butterfly necklace and colourful vintage Versace dress]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/01/93298109-14208143-Heiress_Ivy_Getty_enjoys_wild_30th_birthday_party_after_her_marr-a-84_1734571092199.jpg)
At the time, Jamie’s chief executive was his brother-in-law, Jools’ sibling Paul Hunt. Styles, a father of six and, like Jamie, an Arsenal fan, had a track record of success at Vue Cinemas. He seemed to have repeated it for Oliver, whose two main companies last year reported that their combined turnover had risen more than eight percent to nearly £30million.
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