Luxembourg declared a state of emergency nearly two months ago, shutting down all of the country’s bars and restaurants in a bid to slow the spreading of the virus. The gastronomy sector is feeling the sting of the ongoing crisis. The lack of a relaunch date makes it challenging to plan in advance.
RTL’s Joel Detaille spoke to people from the horeca sector about a situation that threatens to become dramatic. It is a recurring tale of woe: “We understand. The health and safety of all of us comes first but it slowly starts to really hurt,” Luxembourg’s restaurant and bar owners agree. A potential relaunch date would ease some of the concerns.
Jerôme Bigard is the co-founder and managing director of Concept Partners, a company that runs 13 venues in Luxembourg. According to Bigard, “we need to have a date in order to know when to reinstall the entire machinery, when to buy stocks of food or draw up schedules.”
The government has not yet set a relaunch date as officials want to gauge the true extent of the current spreading of the virus.
“Pissenger Hütt” and “Wicki Beach” manager Luc Frings similarly hopes to receive more concrete answers soon. “My biggest concern is how it will start,” he explained. If restaurants are forced to operate at reduced capacity, individual venues may have too many employees to cover the costs. “A dangerous situation could arise,” Frings said. In other words, the question of which conditions and restrictions will apply once restaurants can reopen is also crucial.
Concept Partners CEO Christophe Diederich meanwhile stressed that it would be impossible for venues to survive without state support after the relaunch. The situation begs another pressing question: would it still be profitable to reopen restaurants if restrictive measures have to be observed? Diederich answered this question with a resounding no: “It is absolutely not profitable. [...] It is a fact that, if we reopen tomorrow state support such as short-time working schemes, no restaurant in the country would be profitable.”
HORESCA president Alain Rix warned that many smaller venues will not survive the crisis. State support is important but currently insufficient, he said. Rix concluded that it will not be possible for the hospitality sector to weather the storm if the restrictions continue to apply. The sector urgently needs a relaunch date. Official decisions should not be made at short notice, he stressed.
The hospitality federation drew up a position paper outlining its views about a potential exit strategy to the government. Rix explained that discussions with the ministry of middle classes were ongoing.
The federation is also in favour of reducing the value-added tax on alcohol sales from 17% to 3% as a temporary support measure. The extension of short-time work schemes beyond the state of emergency is also a crucial step in the right direction, according to HORESCA.
