A burger restaurant at the county's biggest shopping centre is closing after falling into administration.

Byron Burger at Bluewater in Greenhithe is one of nine sites across the country to shut.

The owner, Famously Proper, which also owns fried chicken brand Mother Clucker, revealed it will be cutting 218 jobs as a result of the closures.

Its collapse was blamed on rises in costs, such as food and utilities, as well as a reduction in consumer spending due to the current cost-of-living crisis.

The company was set up after private equity firm Calveton rescued Byron from a previous administration in 2020 following the impact of the pandemic.

Administrators from Interpath Advisory were appointed on Friday and immediately confirmed the company has been sold in a pre-pack administration to Tristar Foods, a new company linked to Calveton.

Claire Winder, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “Like many other companies across the hospitality sector, Byron had seen a boost in trading following the end of the Covid lockdown measures.

“However, the sky-high inflation seen in 2022 saw costs spiral and resulted in reduced customer spend, which in turn placed significant cashflow pressure on the business.

“We are pleased to have concluded this transaction which will see the Byron name continue to trade on high streets across the country and which, importantly, has preserved a significant number of jobs.”

The administrators stressed that they will be “providing support to those impacted by redundancy, including providing the information required to make claims from the Redundancy Payments Office.”

The insolvency experts said they explored a number of options aimed at securing the company’s future but turned to administration after no solvent bids were made to buy the business.

Other restaurants in Chelmsford, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Salisbury and Southampton will be closing.