Germany: The Best of the Last Ten Years

 
Germany’s 100 biggest restaurant chains/companies rang up growth in revenues of 7.6% in 2006 (2005: +4.6%; 2004: +3.9%; 2003: +0.4%; 2002: -0.9%) – the best result since 1995. Market leader McDonald’s achieved an increase of about 6% in same-store sales. Last summer’s World Cup triggered a veritable boom for event caterers. Altogether, the Top 100 generated revenues of €9.4 bn from a good 16,000 outlets – with rosy perspectives for 2007.
 

 
2006 was by far and away the best year since the mid-nineties. For the Top 100 at least.
 
A strong economic upturn triggered the classic development in Germany:

• first exports,
• then investments,
• and, finally, private consumption.

Growth impulses from the World Cup were to be felt even where the result had no positive impact. Although the German team failed to win the World Cup, the nation as a whole won due to a significant improvement in the mood. Yesterday’s crisis managers are now looking at tomorrow’s growth strategies: there’s a lot going on in the biotope of the future.On the consumer side, it appears that the propensity to consume has taken a turn for the better. Indeed, there is even a distinct trend towards luxury goods – a phenomenon that was last perceptible around half a decade ago. �
 

• Germany still has one of the most fragmented foodservice markets in West Europe – completely different to, for example, Great Britain. According to the German Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, Germany’s restaurants, cafés, pubs, etc., registered a nominal fall in revenues of 0.7% in 2006 (which is, by the way, a significantly worse result than that of the hotel sector). Against this background, the results of the Top 100 with an increase of 7.6% are indeed excellent. Without doubt, the front-runners leap faster, further and better than the bulk of the sector. In the long term, a difference of over 8% leads to the familiar structural changes per brand, per system, per quantity – per multiplied formula for success.
• McDonald’s has been the frontrunner since 1983, and has increased its lead steadily over the years. Only one change among the Top 10. New in the Top 10 in the last decade: the filling-station brand Aral (BP) with its ‘Petit-Bistros’ and the furniture brand Ikea with its foodservice business (restaurants, bistros, Sweden Shops) – neither of them rooted in the foodservice business. Rapid has been the rise of Burger King. �
• In terms of revenues, a good 50% of the Top 100 are quick-service restaur ants a pattern that is typical of indus trialised countries. When it comes to growth among the segments, the new category of event catering leads the way. For the third time running, none of the six segments have returned negative figures.
• Altogether, 85 of the Top 100 report additional revenues. In relative terms, three are distinguished by triple-digit increases, namely Arena One (24th place), Vapiano (68th) and Do & Co (45th). No less than 40 of the Top 100 managed double-digit rates of growth – only ten of them dropped into the minus area. And that is indeed a positive constellation of the kind that we have not seen for many a long year.

 

 
| 10 August 2007 | Gretel Weiß |