2023-09-18 04:43:00
For three years, the Horeca sector has had to live with busy news and is faced with an economic situation that is, to say the least, not positive. We obviously think back to the long closure during the health crisis which put a noose around the necks of many entrepreneurs. More recently, the war in Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis have hurt the sector, with energy bills exploding and prices inevitably rising.
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For months, we were surprised to see that the restaurants were overwhelmingly full. It was sometimes even very complicated to find a free table on a Wednesday or Thursday evening, when all we were talking regarding was a decline in household purchasing power. “As we emerged from Covid, we felt a desire to help us from our customers. They missed going to restaurants, and they wanted to help the sector, recalls a Brussels restaurateur. Even when the war in Ukraine happened, we did not see a drop in attendance, the same when we had to increase our prices. It was even surprising. But since the spring, there has been a clear decline in the number of reservations. Customers are becoming rarer and I have the impression that we are experiencing a backlash from the crisis and the rise in prices. People are forced to tighten their belts.”
Before the summer, the Brussels Horeca Federation, via its president Ludivine de Magnanville, was already sounding the alarm. “I have a lot of feedback in this sense, in fact,” she explained at the end of June. Above all, there is a very changing phenomenon from day to day. A restaurant can be full one day and empty the next. It’s hard to explain, but my personal analysis is that people save for summer vacation. I just hope this restraint is temporary.”
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Since then, things haven’t really changed. “We hoped for a recovery with the start of the school year, but that did not come. In fact, it’s very special. A Tuesday can be busy, and a Friday is much too quiet, there are no more precise rules,” continues another restaurateur located in Walloon Brabant.
All this while the lack of labor continues to be a problem. Finding waiters, dishwashers or chefs is a real challenge, and the Horeca Wallonia Federation even launched a campaign to attract young people at the end of the summer. The challenges are therefore numerous.
Why the Horeca sector remains in difficulty despite higher bills for consumers: prices will increase by 6 to 9% in 2023
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