Rocco Forte: My business has lost £100m in Covid. I ve had to tighten my belt
The hotelier and Tory donor says that after a disastrous year for hospitality, he s struggling to pay for his daughter s wedding
21 May 2021 • 5:00am
According to the most recent rich list, Sir Rocco Forte s family fortune was worth £345 million
Credit: Andrew Crowley
Losing £100 million in lockdown has required Sir Rocco Forte to have some awkward conversations with his wife, Aliai.
According to the most recent rich list, his family fortune was worth £345 million – but after one of the most difficult years in the history of the travel industry, the pandemic has badly impacted even the multimillionaire owner of luxury hotels like Brown’s in London and The Balmoral in Edinburgh.
The Wright family tragedies - upsetting deaths, financial ruin and restaurant blaze
After Elliott Wright’s restaurant was destroyed by a fire, here are some of other tragic events which have rocked his cousin Mark Wright and the rest of the famous TOWIE family
15:54, 27 APR 2021
Updated
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And then the coronavirus crisis struck and the country went into lockdown. Immediately voluntary groups began providing help for those who could not work and the elderly who were having to self-isolate. The council urged residents not to panic buy goods after a van was stopped near the Blackwall Tunnel and found to be more than a ton overweight because the driver had stockpiled so much toilet roll.
April
Restaurants and bars that had to close because of the pandemic began giving out their leftover food for free to NHS workers who were spending all their hours at hospitals caring for the sick. Liam Tolan and David Burgess, who ran Fugitive Motel bar and kitchen in Bethnal Green, gave away food boxes of fresh fruit, vegetables and bread after posting a notice on social media. They took the rest to staff at the Royal London Hospital.