Hayat Sahin takes the bottle of garlic sauce on the table. “Do you know how expensive it got to make this?” he asks. “Just the Zaanse mayo that goes in is twice as expensive.” Everything Hayat Sahin needs to run his döner business in Amsterdam’s Van Woustraat has become more expensive: frying fat, fries, flour, aluminum foil, meat. Not to mention the energy bill. That has tripled to almost 5,000 euros.
Dutch doner businesses are running into financial problems due to increased inflation and rising energy costs. In the Netherlands, more and more doner shops are about to collapse. Entrepreneurs offer their business on Marktplaats. The high energy costs are now becoming too much, but pricing has been a problem in the industry for some time.
There are about 2,100 doner shops in the Netherlands, according to research by data research agency LocalFocus from 2019. In six years, the number of doner shops had increased by more than 15 percent. Most businesses are located in South Holland, Brabant and Limburg. The number of doner shops is expected to decrease. Doner business is energy-intensive, says sector economist Ward van der Stee of ABN Amro, because the doner skewer has to run all day and the freezers and refrigerators are on all day.
More expensive doner spit
Before the energy crisis, the biggest problem for Eethuis Lavina, the business of Hayat Sahin, was that customers cannot park in the street between 4 and 7 pm. Now he is looking in vain for ways to save energy. He cannot replace his grill, which is heated with gas, with an electric one. Then the döner will not be crispy.
Tursun Amat’s Restaurant Dolan, a few hundred meters away on Van Woustraat, is also feeling the effects of high inflation and the energy crisis. Amat currently sells about five döner sandwiches a day. Two years ago there were sometimes more than ten times as many, he says. “I notice that customers nowadays have less to spend.”
The fact that doner shops are having a hard time is also noticeable at the Amsterdam catering wholesaler M&O Cash and Carry, which supplies frying fat, lettuce and sauces to doner shops, says a spokesperson. He hears from customers that they are closing their business or putting it up for sale. “Entrepreneurs who do not stop now opt for B brands to save costs.”
Süleyman Arslan, director-owner of doner producer Enderün Döner, sees from his sales figures that doner businesses are having a hard time. His sales have shrunk by about 20 percent in recent months. “A doner spit is now 30 percent more expensive than a year ago. Some customers can no longer afford that and therefore buy less meat. One of my customers used to buy 200 kilos of meat a week. Now one hundred and fifty.”
Base-resistant
Arslan believes that the industry has brought the current misery on itself. Entrepreneurs have been selling their döner too cheaply for years. You pay an average of 4.50 euros for a sandwich. They could, he says, charge almost double. As much as for a pizza margherita. According to Arslan, the margin is now too small. “Why don’t they charge almost as much as a pizza?”
In Germany, doner entrepreneurs have found a solution to this. They’ve raised their prices a lot. In some places, a döner sandwich costs 10 euros. German media speak of döner inflation. Dutch entrepreneurs do not dare to go that far because they are afraid that their customers will stay away, says Arslan. According to the doner supplier, they are too busy with what their competitors are doing.
Sahin of Eethuis Lavina has already carefully increased his prices. Two months ago, with 50 cents. That increase is not nearly enough to offset the increased energy costs, but Sahin knows that not all customers simply accept a change. When he took the tomato out of the bun a while ago, a customer refused to pay. Now customers are already “whining” about the price increase of 50 cents.
Latifa and Yassine Doucha from Lille, France, have just eaten a döner menu and a sandwich at Eethuis Lavina. Would they come back if a sandwich costs 10 euros? Yassine is firm. “That amount consists of two figures. That’s where the limit is.” It is different for regular customers such as Alex Verwoerd. He has been visiting Lavina for over ten years for two Turkish pizzas, a bowl of iceberg lettuce and sauce. “I am very stubborn,” he says. “It must be extremely expensive if I want to stay away from here.”
According to doner supplier Arslan, many doner shops make the mistake of selling too many different products. A good doner shop should only sell doner, he thinks. The fact that many döner businesses are falling over is therefore a good thing, according to Arslan. Then only the best remain. It is better for the industry if there are a few very good ones who sell their sandwiches for a higher price than if there is a döner shop every two meters in a street trying to be as cheap as possible, he thinks. “With a higher price you no longer have to sell a hundred sandwiches a day. You sell fifty, but earn the same.”
The first entrepreneurs are already offering their business for sale on Marktplaats, where takeovers of doner businesses are usually arranged. Matters include the entire household contents, rental contracts and catering permits to be taken over. Proposed prices range from 30,000 euros to 75,000 euros. Except for a few who are in a hurry: “We hereby offer a snack bar/doner shop. MUST GO NOW for 15,000!!!”
A version of this article also appeared in the January 2, 2023 issue