Cost of energy, out of the covid, drop in purchasing power … About fifty French chiefs fear “disgusting” from France

An alert cry for the profession. Meanwhile, The star chef Thierry Marx interviewed on France Inter warned against a series of threats weighing on the catering sector. Similarly, He even speaks of “disgusting”.

The Union of Hotel Trades. Furthermore, Industries (UMIH), of which he is president, alerted to a decline of 15 % to 20 % of the attendance of restaurants in summer. Meanwhile, An unhappy observation from which “we do not get up”, for three years, he assures.

Since the COVVI-19. Furthermore, restaurateurs have struggled to get their heads out of the water – Cost energy, out covid, drop

“Exit cost energy, out covid, drop from the COVID, explosion of the cost of energy, reimbursement of loans guaranteed by the State” … In addition, costs accumulate for restaurateurs. Consequently, Faced with these charges that weigh on their shoulders, it is difficult for them to maintain attractive prices. Therefore, “The customer feels betrayed by the offer,” explains Thierry Marx.

Read also: INTERVIEW. Thierry Marx: “7. 000 companies disappeared last year, it is urgent to perpetuate French gastronomy”

Because the purchasing power of the French is increasingly limited, which takes them to make arbitrations. Thus. Italian, Spanish or even Moroccan restaurants appear more attractive, “while France loses from year to year this relationship it had with international tourism”.

And during this time, the powerless restaurateurs have “no more cash”. It is in this context that the president of the UMIH. alongside around fifty starred chiefs, co-signed a platform in which he worries in particular cost energy, out covid, drop of the “disgusting” of France. “French gastronomy is oxidizing because it is not recognized or protected,” he said at the microphone of France Inter.

About 20 restaurants close every day

When asked if the situation is so serious, he replies that yes. And he is not the only one to think so. Franck Delvau. president of the UMIH for Paris and Ile-de-France, already alerted to France Culture: “There are 15 to 20 restaurants that close every day. It is really a deeper crisis. There, we really feel after Covid”.

Read also: INTERVIEW. Restoration crisis: “There is a saturation of the market”. alerts the star chef Thierry Marx

In Ile-de-France alone, in the last quarter of 2024, the number of balance sheet deposits increased by 40 % over a year. A level of failure “never reached in the catering sector”.

According to Thierry Marx, the first to cost energy, out covid, drop put the key under the door are the restaurants that offer homemade. They are “barely 2 % margin … faced with an industrialization of the profession” which allows up to 110 % margin elsewhere. with less staff and less traceability of the products. A structural problem that attacks both “to our identity and our attractiveness”.

“Protect homemade”

So you have to be able to be heard to protect the “homemade”. And the best way for him would be to establish a framework law. He also insists on the need not to tax the tips. which contributes to the loss of attractiveness of the profession.

The president of the UMIH also intends to fight against a “learning deficit”. For this, he does not exclude the idea of a “diploma” necessary for the opening of a restaurant. A solution that would also go through a framework law. because as it recalled cost energy, out covid, drop multiple times, the crisis that the sector is through is above all “structural”.