Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, best known for his TV shows such as “Hell’s Kitchen” and for leading high-class restaurants worthy of coveted Michelin stars, is yet another celebrity who is moving his headquarters from tax-heavy California to Texas.
More precisely, Ramsay is moving his North American restaurant operations from Los Angeles to Las Colinas, a suburb in Texas.
Over the next five years, the celebrity chef is planning a massive expansion for Gordon Ramsay North America and investment in the United States that includes opening 75 company-owned restaurants.
And the main reasons for moving to Dallas is tax policies, according to the company CEO, Norman Abdallah.
“The cost of living adjustment [from California to Texas] is pretty substantial. If you can make it in Dallas, you can make it anywhere,” Abdallah explained. ”
Ramsay admitted that his restaurants suffered losses of approximately $80 million in the pandemic and that just in the United Kingdom alone. So he likely suffered well over $100 million in total losses due to shutdowns, according to his portfolio in the United States.
He also said that he recycles his earnings back into his restaurants because he understands how many livelihoods depend on his success.
“I have always put my money back into the business. I’ve never been greedy, I’ve always been very, very generous. I get criticized for being wealthy, but the responsibility on my shoulders, the livelihoods at stake, is huge,” Ramsay said.
In fact, multiple Fortune 500 companies have relocated to Texas in the last six years, including Charles Schwab, Jacobs, McKesson Corp., CBRE Group, Core-Mark International, Oracle, Tesla, and Hewlett-Packard.
And it is not getting any better for California as the Hoover Institute at Stanford University released a report which says that 74 companies had relocated out of California during the first six months of 2021.
For comparison, in all of 2020, only 62 companies moved their headquarters to California.