8 celebrity-owned businesses in Manchester including Gary Neville, Pep Guardiola and Coronation Street stars

As if fame wasn’t enough, a number of Manchester celebrities (mainly footballers and soap actors) have ventured into the business world recently – albeit with varying degrees of success.

There have been casualties among the celebrity business owners over the last few years, including actor Adam Thomas, currently starring in Strictly Come Dancing, whose restaurant The Spinn in Gatley closed last year. Others include footballer Juan Mata’s Spanish restaurant Tapeo, which closed in 2020, and just last week, Rio Ferdinand’s upmarket Italian restaurant Rosso closed unexpectedly.

One of the biggest disasters, however, was the ill-fated Boujee restaurant chain that counted Real Housewives of Cheshire star Lystra Adams among its directors. The all-pink Instagram-ready restaurant was plagued with issues, including terrible reviews and staff walkouts.

But some have been much more successful – most notably former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, who are well on their way to building a city-wide hospitality empire. Similarly, Marcus Rashford, who off the pitch is known for his charity work, earned an estimated £17.7million in 2022, or £48,000 a day, via his investment company, according to The Sun citing Companies House data.

The trend of celebrities using their wealth to invest outside of their industries is on the up and here to stay. American actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have made a documentary series about their purchase of a Welsh football club, the same goes for Gwenyth Paltrow’s bizarre wellness brand Goop.

Who knows what we’ll see these famous faces do next. Until then, here are eight celeb-owned businesses in Manchester.