Mark Hix thanks team after 'toughest couple of weeks ever'

Mr Hix had a 25 per cent stake in the restaurants he ran in Lyme Regis and London after selling his company to London-based hospitality company Westbury Street Holdings (WSH) more than four years ago. An administrator was called in due to high rents making trading extremely tough, who ordered the locks on his businesses to be changed and the staff made redundant.

In a statement issued on Instagram last week, Mr Hix said: “Dear friends, I echo the words of Rick Stein this week and all others in our hospitality business who have undoubtedly faced the toughest couple of weeks ever, and, in our case, since we opened in 2008.

“The hardest decision for WSH & Mark Hix Restaurants Limited has been to appoint an administrator and to close down the restaurants and Hix Townhouse, which in turn has made my team redundant without being able to take advantage of the Government’s furlough scheme. Although the press are using, and will use, my name as the responsible director this was not my decision.

“Apart from tough times and sad times for me, it is nothing compared to what so many of my team, and other reliant on our business, are going through. Over time we have genuinely become a large family and to lose all of my team like this has been incredibly difficult and upsetting.

“One day I will open in some way and I want to say a big thank you to all of my team, my suppliers and our guests who’ve been so supportive over the years and a huge thanks to those that have been in touch with the good wishes.”

Mr Hix, who was born and grew up in West Bay, has a home in Charmouth, and launched the popular annual Food Rocks Festival in Lyme Regis in 2012 to celebrate the produce in the south west and raise money for the RNLI and The Fishermen’s Mission.

He  attended Weymouth College. In 2014 he launched an academy for aspiring chefs at the college is now an ambassador for catering training at the site.