Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s production company which boasted of its “strong ethical brand” has gone bust, leaving freelancers waiting to be paid for their work.
The chef co-founded KEO Films in the Nineties, and the company has produced a string of ethically and ecologically focused programmes, including Hugh’s War on Waste for the BBC and the River Cottage series for Channel 4.
KEO Films has declared itself insolvent this summer and has been sold off, leaving scores of freelancers enduring an “unethical” wait to be paid for their work, with concerns being raised about payments being delayed in the past.
The situation comes after insolvency documents show that directors, including Fearnley-Whittingstall, paid themselves £4 million from 2014 to 2020, despite their company struggling to turn a profit.
One freelancer, who said he was never fully paid after working for a KEO Film subsidiary, told The Telegraph: “Although they claim it’s an ethical company, it doesn’t seem that ethical.
“I should be paid. If they have the money and they’ve taken payments… If they’ve been paid before other people have been paid, that’s unethical.”
Will Anderson, the creative director of KEO Films, has vowed to pay more than 40 freelancers waiting for payment.
“We are trying to do the right thing in a difficult situation. We don’t want to get a bad reputation. We are trying to come to arrangements with people where we can,” he said
It is understood that the majority freelancers are already in the process of being paid, and are being transferred to the books of Passion Pictures, which bought Keo Films for £1.7 million.
The deal was part of a restructuring arrangement which followed Keo Films going into administration in July. Mr Anderson has indicated the £4 million payout over seven years were not dividends, but included salary payments.
Fearnley-Whittingstall co-founded Keo Films in 1996, after the Eton and Oxford-educated TV chef shot to fame with his series TV Dinners.
After this, he moved to River Cottage in Dorset, and became known for his promotion of self-sufficiency and organic food.
