All-You-Can-Eat Food Chain Shuts 16 Sites, Citing Rising Costs

Offering patrons all they could eat was not enough to keep them coming back, forcing 16 restaurants across Australia into administration this week. They are part of more than 50 eateries run by the popular all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant business Okami. The affected restaurants are company-owned sites in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, and South Australia. The other sites operate under a franchise model. All have gone into voluntary administration, with the chain’s founder citing delayed costs from the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation as the causes. Audit, tax, and advisory firm Grant Thornton has been appointed with Phillip Campbell Wilson and John McInerney named joint administrators....