Top chefs slammed on wine mark-ups

By Tony Halstead THals22851@aol.com

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Heston blumenthal

Profit margins are unjustified say critics Restaurants and gastropubs have been slated for excessive mark-ups on wine, which see diners charged up...

Profit margins are unjustified say critics

Restaurants and gastropubs have been slated for excessive mark-ups on wine, which see diners charged

up to five times the wholesale cost of a bottle.

Celebrity chefs are helping themselves to profits of between £10 and £35 a bottle, an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph revealed.

One Michelin-starred restaurant, the Fat Duck at Bray, Berkshire, run by chef Heston Blumenthal sold a bottle of 2005 Bourgogne Aligote for £58 against a cost price of just £12.12. Further down the scale, Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Claridges sold a 2006 bottle of Chateau Bauduc Bordeaux Blanc costing £5.42 for £20.

Critics say the profit margins are unjustified and point out other well-known restaurant operators survive on much lower mark-ups.

The restaurants have defended their prices and say they are necessary to cover costs such as staff wages and storage.

More middle-of-the-road pub restaurants work on far lower margins which typically work out at about three times the cost price of a bottle.

One operator, Steve Turner of Lancashire-based Mo-Yo, says the company's margins are about three times the wholesale cost.

"We work on between three and three and a half times the cost price at all four of our pubs," he revealed.

"We aim for an average 65% gross profit and we think that this is a reasonable figure.

"A fine dining tag should not give premises the excuse for charging huge mark-ups," he said.

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