If the local bar is "closed today", then from the point of view of the Baden-Württemberg Hotel and Restaurant Association, that also has something to do with the energy crisis. The NGG union warns against carrying out measures on the backs of employees.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Anyone who has not yet had the following experience could soon do it: The stomach growls and then the favorite dish of all things is no longer available at the Italian restaurant around the corner - or, even worse, the restaurant is closed. To save in the energy crisis, restaurateurs in the southwest are taking action. "Optimization is a permanent task. But the economic pressure has increased, so that opening times, menus or the deployment of staff are being questioned," said the spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg Hotel and Restaurant Association, Daniel Ohl, of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. Local restaurants introduced additional days of rest or removed dishes from the menu that were rarely ordered but caused storage costs.
However, the Food, Enjoyment and Restaurants Union (NGG) warns against putting the fight against the energy crisis on the backs of employees. It is already difficult enough to get staff, said the chairman of the NGG state district Southwest, Uwe Hildebrandt. This won't get any easier with additional rest days. "At the end of the day, you will no longer be able to get anyone to work in the catering trade if you continue to reduce working hours," said Hildebrandt. The industry must offer employment contracts with which people "make ends meet".
According to Hildebrandt, even before the energy crisis, restaurateurs were constantly complaining that they could not keep their opening hours. This is not only a problem of the energy crisis, stressed the chairman of the NGG in the southwest.
Before the crisis, the energy cost share in the catering trade was five to ten percent, said Ohl. "The hospitality industry has always been an energy-intensive industry. There is cooking, cooling and heating." But not only rising energy prices, but also increased commodity prices and personnel costs are currently making economic work difficult. In September, for example, an inflation rate of 9.5 percent was offset by average price increases in the hotel and catering industry of 7.1 percent.
In addition, reservations are currently being made at significantly shorter notice than before. According to a Germany-wide industry survey, more than 45 percent of the companies surveyed described the booking and reservation situation for the months of November and December as poor, as reported by the German Hotel and Restaurant Association. Ohl also said that bookings in the pre-Christmas period were below the level of the pre-Corona year 2019. However, one cannot conclude from this that the Christmas business will be bad. There was a similar initial situation in the summer, but ultimately short-term sales had significantly improved the result.
The robust demand despite higher prices is encouraging, says Ohl. The experience in gastronomy or relaxation on vacation is obviously important to many people and they do not want to delete it at the moment after missing it for a long time. In the long term, however, inflation could also have an impact here.
