There were 61 percent more start-ups in the hospitality industry in May than in the same month last year. This increase is almost entirely attributable to event catering, the Chamber of Commerce (KVK) reported on Wednesday. According to professor Erik Stam, this has everything to do with the disappearance of the corona measures.
Now that the festival season is just around the corner and the Dutch are making up for two years of canceled parties, these are peak days for catering companies. This is also reflected in the number of start-ups in that sector. In May there were 61 percent more starters in the hospitality industry than in May last year. The vast majority of these are in event catering, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
This category includes independent cooks and baristas, but also catering companies. “The accelerated growth in the number of starters in the catering industry coincides with the start of the festival season and the catching up of all kinds of celebrations and parties,” says Erik Stam, professor of Entrepreneurship at the Utrecht University School of Economics.
But there were also 67 percent more start-ups in healthcare than a year ago. According to Stam, this is not because there is suddenly more demand, but because more health care employees are working as self-employed persons.
Entrepreneurs are working on the future after corona
At the same time, there were also more quitters in both sectors: 35 percent more in the hospitality industry and 41 percent more in healthcare. The Chamber of Commerce suspects that after the corona crisis, which has led to higher debts in a number of sectors, existing entrepreneurs have started thinking about the future of their company and whether they can go even further.
“The fact that the number of bankruptcies remains small and the number of voluntary quitters has been increasing for three months, could indicate that more entrepreneurs are closing down their business in order not to let it go bankrupt,” says a spokesperson for the Chamber of Commerce.
In total, 21,435 new companies were founded in May, 16 percent more than in May 2021. In addition, 10,021 entrepreneurs closed their business. That is 32 percent more than last year. Our country now has 2.2 million companies.