Novelli: my pubs are not in trouble

Celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli has denied reports that his gastropubs were in financial trouble.

The French chef insisted his businesses were doing "better than ever" and said he still planned to open another eight A Touch Of Novelli-branded pubs.

"You can see clearly that I'm not bankrupt. It's nonsense," he told a local newspaper. Newspaper reports suggested that Sweet Medicine, the company behind the two Novelli gastropubs in the French Horn, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, an Enterprise site, and the French Horn, Steppingley, Bedfordshire, a Greene King site, had ceased trading.

The firm's two directors are expected to transfer it to new owners shortly. Novelli, 47, told a local newspaper that 2008 was "a very difficult year for us financially" but said he would expand his business interests during the recession.

He added: "What's been going on since December is I'm actually negotiating with the people who are taking over the pubs in order to move on with them and open an extra

eight sites.

"The people who were struggling before the crisis, there's no way they can survive. For the people doing okay, it's time to move on (and expand) — you can buy cheaper."