Restaurant chains are gaining more and more market share from independent establishments
Locals that do not belong to chains or franchises face the covid crisis with less muscle
That well of infinite wisdom that is the network tells us that the most popular names of bars in Spain are Plaza, Avenida and La Parada, on the one hand, and Paco, Manolo and Pepe, on the other. The article that confirms this, from the Baarty platform, dates from almost 10 years ago and portrays a time that at least Barcelona seems to have forgotten. In the Catalan capital (especially in its most central neighbourhoods) this “lifelong bar” It begins to be a ‘rare bird’. In fact, despite the fact that in Spain the autonomous restaurateur retains a market share of close to 70%, chains they control an ever-increasing slice of the pie. And the pandemic has accelerated the trend.
This is evidenced by NPD Market Research Group, whose data indicate that at the end of last year, independent establishments received 68% of spending on restaurants, a market share 15 points lower than the one they controlled a decade ago. And although in these years the loss of volume was progressive and only in a few cases did it exceed the point from one year to the next, according to the yearbook they prepare KPMG, Restoration Marks Y NPD, With the arrival of covid, the self-employed went from capturing 75.3% of spending in 2019 to close to 70% in 2020, almost 5 points of difference that trigger a graph that had risen at most 2 points in 2018. One year later , this market has already lost another 2 points.
According to this portrait, who benefits is the brand restoration, that is, all those premises that respond to a common brand image or policy. They are the ones that already capture about a third of the market, far from the 15% they registered 10 years ago. In addition, despite the fact that the pandemic has reduced sales in both types of businesses, the wound is again greater in the case of independent establishments, which in 2020 saw their activity fall by 45%, compared to 31% of the chains. . Those responsible for the study attribute this difference to “their lower offer of consumption options outside the room (‘delivery‘ & ‘take away‘) and an acceleration in the closing of establishments”.
double closures
Preliminary data handled Delecttech, a big data start-up that works with data from the Horeca sector (hotels, restaurants and catering), confirm that the rate of closures of establishments has doubled, while the rate of openings has been reduced by half. And although this firm does not detect a great difference between the number of independent and organized establishments closed, it does anticipate that in the coming months the balance will tip unfavorably towards individual restoration.
“During the first months of covid, the big problem in the Horeca sector was liquidity”, justifies the founder of the company, Xavier Mallol. “In addition, we saw a change in the laws of supply and demand in the market, since a restaurant that was normally full and worked very well could become empty or closed due to not having a terrace or a place adapted to sanitary measures” , Add.
That turned viable investments and businesses into risky bets and created a debt problem that was easier for the networks to digest. “Organized restaurants, with more financial muscle and negotiating capacity with suppliers and banks than independent restaurants, seem to be able to withstand the blow better than traditional bars,” Mallol ventures.
On your side, the Spanish Hospitality Business Confederation is based on data from Statistics National Institute (INE) and complete the drawing by noting that as of January 1, 2021 there were 80,000 restaurants and cafes open in Spain, 1% less than before the pandemic, and 175,000 bars, 4% less. In fact, compared to 2011, the difference is 21%. Despite the fact that a restaurant can be an independent company, and a bar, a chain, this picture highlights the complex situation faced by the latter: “They are small companies with little financial lung to endure the difficult times they have lived through and with difficult access to the aid that has been & rdquor ;, analyze from Hospitality of Spain.
Terraces and ‘delivery’
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“You have to differentiate the national-international chains from the local restaurant groups, which continue to offer their own gastronomic proposal even if they have 2, 3 or 4 locations spread around the city & rdquor ;, clarifies the Guild of Restoration of Barcelona, which remains firm in its conviction that the pandemic has valued the proximity restoration and that, precisely for this reason, these establishments are hardly losing market share to the chains.
There are, however, other problems that threaten the fabric of traditional bars. A study carried out by Delectatech for the Association of Manufacturers and Distributors AECOC shows that the terms that gained the most popularity within the restaurant universe last year were terraces, reservation service, desserts, croquettes and rice dishes. On the other hand, the categories that lost the most relevance were tapas, coffee, beer, hamburgers and pinchos. And to this cocktail we must add the strong pull of ‘delivery’: according to AECOC, this form of consumption has doubled after the pandemic and only 25% of the population is now alien to it.