Christina Ong’s Como Group has emerged as a major shareholder in loss-making SL6, the holding company behind The Fat Duck and Hinds Head, giving the celebrity chef the muscle to expand.
The Singaporean billionaire, long credited with turning London’s Bond Street into a luxury catwalk, has her sights set on a more idiosyncratic British institution: Heston Blumenthal’s country kitchen.
Christina Ong, the 78-year-old fashion mogul and hotelier dubbed the “Queen of Bond Street”, has emerged as the new financier of the celebrity chef’s loss-making restaurant empire. Filings this week show her family’s Como Group has become a major shareholder with significant control of SL6, the holding company behind Blumenthal’s culinary ventures.
The deal gives the Ong family an entry into one of the most distinctive brands in British gastronomy and gives the chef the financial resources to expand into new markets. The cash injection is expected to support the expansion of Blumenthal’s award-winning operations led by The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant which almost single-handedly put British “molecular gastronomy” on the world map when it opened in 1995. Blumenthal, 59, also runs the nearby Hinds Head pub near Maidenhead.
“Como’s international hospitality experience opens new doors for what comes next,” said Blumenthal, adding that the partnership would allow the group to “explore new opportunities.”
The investment comes at a sensitive time for SL6. In its most recent financial statements, the company acknowledged that it was in discussions with potential investors to secure long-term financing “to help address current economic challenges (and provide a foundation for future growth”). In the 12 months to the end of May 2024, revenue fell from £9.5m to £8.9m, while pre-tax losses widened to £2.1m from £1.4m a year earlier.
A company spokeswoman sought to balance the picture, emphasizing that demand for reservations at both restaurants remained robust and that the Hinds Head had delivered consistent monthly growth over the past 18 months, putting it on track for a record year.
Ong’s arrival comes just weeks after Blumenthal confirmed the closure of Dinner by Heston, his two-Michelin-star ode to historic British cuisine at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. The London location, which opened in 2011, will close once the hotel lease expires, although a sister company, Dinner by Heston, which opened in 2023 at Atlantis The Royal Hotel on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, continues to do business.
For Como Group, the deal expands a hotel and lifestyle empire that already spans 15 countries. The company is headquartered in Singapore and controlled by the Ong family. It operates 11 restaurants, most in its hometown, as well as a portfolio of 19 luxury hotels and resorts in markets including London, Italy, France, the Maldives, Bali, Australia and Thailand. The group’s first foray into the food and beverage industry came in 1989 when it opened the Armani Café in London.
Ong himself is a fixture in British retail and luxury. She founded fashion boutiques Club21 in 1972 and holds a 56 percent stake in Mulberry, the British leather goods store, through Challice, the investment vehicle she runs with her 80-year-old husband Ong Beng Seng. Her interests also include a number of fashion franchise stores stocking brands such as Emporio Armani.
“We see this partnership as the start of something very special,” Ong said. “We look forward to supporting the continued development of these iconic restaurants while exploring new opportunities for thoughtful growth in the years ahead.”
The deal also marks a public appearance by the Ong family on the corporate stage. Last year, Ong Beng Seng was fined S$23,400 after pleading guilty to charges related to a gifts scandal involving a former Singaporean government minister. He faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, but a judge granted “judicial mercy” given his poor health.
For Blumenthal, who has spent three decades persuading Brits to eat snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream, the message to the food public is more prosaic. With Como’s checkbook now within his grasp, the chef has an opportunity to refresh and perhaps even expand an empire that, despite critical reviews, has struggled to balance the books.
