Lewis Hamilton closes his vegan fast food chain

Dark times for Lewis Hamilton. Because what Lewis Hamilton is going through is, perhaps, the most difficult phase of his career, not only sporty. After the great successes in the McLaren team, since he entered Ferrari, the English champion does not seem to find the satisfaction hoped for. As if that were not enough, he recently had to close the last two stores in the United Kingdom of his vegan fast food chain Neat Burger. Launched in 2019, with eight locations in London, the Hamilton chain has just closed a branch in Soho and the other in Camden, the last two in the City. The news was first reported by The Sunwho confirmed the closures with a company spokesperson. “The company made the difficult decision to close its restaurants in the United Kingdom,” said the spokesperson, adding that further comments will not be released at the moment.

The estimate of the losses, despite Leonardo DiCaprio and the growth of the vegans

The closings follow years of financial difficulties, including a loss of 7.85 million pounds in 2022 Although it has collected over $ 25 million and $ 100 million has been evaluated in 2023, the rapid international expansion of Neat Burger was short -lived. After the closure of the last two restaurants in the United Kingdom, the estimate of the lost jobs is about 150. Although Sir Hamilton immediately received the support of public figures, among all Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the members of the chain and the main investor of the Californian startup Beylond Meat, who first had launched the so-called non-chief meat, the same used by Neat Burger’s sandwiches. The support had also arrived from the Real Madrid goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois. Yet, according to the numbers, the investment does not seem to be a gamble. According to the Eurispes 2024 report, today, almost 10%of the population follows a vegetarian (7.2%) or vegan (2.3%) diet for a total of over 5.6 million people, also marking an increase of 3 percentage points on 2023. The other figure underlined by the research institute is that, in the ten -year segment between 2014 and 2024, the vegan population has quadrupled, but the “negative” figure is that in 2024 “the majority of the sample asked in the investigation declares that it has always been omnivorous (85.5%)”. In short, the vegans exist but the majority, if it should choose, prefers the classic hamburger.

Lewis Hamilton during the qualifications of the last F1 circuit in Saudi Arabia on 20 April.Kym Illman/Getty Images

Neat Burger in Milan and the (probable) opening in the USA

The Vegano brand had already significantly reduced its activities in the last 18 months. Also because last year the Neat Burger headquarters in Camden, in the northern area of ​​London (now closed), after an inspection of officials, had received an evaluation for disastrous food hygiene (only two out of five). The managers had quickly remedied but it was not enough. And “to think that in 2019 Hamilton, after becoming vegan in 2017 because he is sure that eating meat is not only cruel but also contributes to global warming, he said:” I think he will change the rules of the game, I took the opportunity to be part of it “. The mission of” creating delicious and sustainable dishes “has therefore set. Meanwhile, the two restaurants in Milan, one in Porta Venezia the tall at the intent of the Merlata Bloom shopping center, are the only two remained open all over the world. At least for now. Because Neat Burger intends to fly overseas, opening his first physical store in the United States before the end of the year. To this end, the company (which also involves two Italians, Tommaso Chiabra and Jordan Rocca), announced the beginning of a 30 million fundraising to support the growth project.