Sunday Brunch's Simon Rimmer 'days away from losing everything' in 'horrible time'

Simon Rimmer came close to "losing everything" when he made his "worst business decision". The Sunday Brunch host, 62, confessed that in the late nineties, his plan to open a new restaurant quickly went south - and he was "literally days away" from losing his empire.

In 1998, Simon's third restaurant Food was "losing money hand over fist", as he admitted to The Telegraph. Simon opened the restaurant with his business partner Simon Connolly, but soon the pair were "in a race with the bank", battling to sell the joint before it foreclosed.

He told the publication: "We were literally days away from losing everything. Just thinking about it now, over 20 years later, still gives me tremendous anxiety. I had an 18-month-old daughter and my wife wasn't working. It was a horrible, horrible time."

In the same interview, he admitted that the restaurant was an "absolute disaster" because they chose the wrong location, explaining: "We thought Fallowfield was going to transform from a studenty area to a trendier, gentrified area like Didsbury did, but it just didn't happen.

"Our first and second restaurants had gone well and we thought we were invincible, but this led to me losing my self-confidence for a good while."

Though things recovered for the TV presenter, Simon was forced to close the doors to his popular restaurant Greens in 2024. The vegan and vegetarian restaurant opened in 1990 and closed its doors more than 30 years later.

Documents filed to Companies House for the restaurant showed that more than £500,000 was owed in unpaid debt by the chain to creditors.

The document says: "It is estimated that HMRC are owed a total of £458,873 comprised of unpaid VAT and PAYE. We understand that [Royal Bank of Scotland] were owed £13,164.10 at the time of the administrators' appointment.

"Trade Creditors are estimated in the sum of £75,067 with three claims totalling £1,923 received by the administrators to date. Consumer creditors who have paid for restaurant vouchers and gift cards are estimated to be owed £35,790."

Simon told the MEN of Greens' closure: "It was heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking. [It was] my very first restaurant. I've grown up there. I've had kids there. I've grown from being a boy to a man, started a television career, bought my house off the back of it. Greens were the cornerstone of my life."