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▷ Crisis as an opportunity / lessons from the lockdowns and perspectives for …

01.07.2021 – 18:19

Mitchells & Butlers Germany GmbH

Wiesbaden (ots)

“Life is Beautiful!” is the motto of the 40 ALEX all-day catering establishments, which are operated together with three brasseries and a Miller & Carter Steakhouse by Mitchells & Butlers Germany GmbH (MaBG) in 34 German cities. In the past 15 months, however, all of our lives have not been so good …

The company and its 1,600 full-time employees have come through the crisis comparatively well to this day. Despite many wrong political decisions, long waiting times for the still not fully disbursed state aid funds and an abundance of patchy federal and short-term decisions. Managing Director Bernd Riegger is convinced “that we in Germany live in a privileged country and have so far mastered the pandemic quite well as a society and as a company.” The most important crisis instrument was and is the short-time work allowance. With this – and through voluntary increases to 80 to 100 percent – it has been possible to keep almost all employees from the core team. And something else has proven its worth in the crisis: conservative business practices. Because MaBG lives from the good substance that has been invested in recent years and was able to benefit from the high cash inventory that was actually intended for further expansion. This made it possible to bridge the lockdown months.

Demands on politics

“The gastronomy was forgotten by politics and not perceived as an industry. That must change if such a pandemic situation occurs again,” demands Riegger. Politics must become less bureaucratic and creative and, in addition to scientists, involve a wide range of decision-makers. In addition, it is necessary to establish a uniform national set of rules that is binding for all states and municipalities – not only from an incidence of 100. “As a Germany-wide chain, we were almost unable to keep up with the restarts with the very different regulations at the 34 German locations . That was an absolute show of strength! “, Said Riegger. And now there is great expectation that after all the efforts that have been consistently implemented, you will also experience relief and that further relaxation will take place quickly (for example with the distance rules on the inner surface). States and municipalities are still having a hard time with this.

Learnings from the lockdowns

Riegger is very satisfied with the way his management team and all employees have mastered the great challenges of the last few months in the company. Because Mitchells & Butlers has given its employees security through job guarantees and increases in short-time allowances and generally enjoys a good reputation as a trustworthy employer, the core teams have stayed, so that the restart did not have to be postponed or time-limited due to a lack of staff. Apart from the currently still missing mini jobbers, who are primarily generated from students, MaBG does not suffer from the shortage of skilled workers as much as other restaurateurs. In addition, the regular direct status communication by e-mail between Bernd Riegger and the operations managers as well as their employees on site, which was introduced during the lockdowns, has proven to be an important, trust-building instrument that is to be retained in the future. The digital weaknesses discovered in the process – such as the interaction with employees via social media and messengers instead of email – are one of many ideas and tasks that have been taken away from the crisis. In general, the topic of digitization has received another strong boost within the company as a result of the pandemic.

With regard to its locations, the company will have to take additional factors into account in the future. Because not least due to travel restrictions and failed trade fairs as well as the foreseeable trend towards temporarily maintaining the home office, formerly very profitable outlets in office environments (e.g. ALEX The Squaire at Frankfurt Airport) are particularly affected by the lockdown effects and the resulting social upheavals . On the other hand, greater emphasis will be placed on large outdoor areas, which are already an important trademark of the ALEX companies, in future companies. The pandemic has clearly shown that year-round ability outside of the game can be a game changer. Without them, Mitchells & Butlers would not have been able to generate sales of EUR 76.8 million (previous year: EUR 105.7 million) in the past financial year (as of December 31, 2020) due to the regulations on the inside and thus “only” retract a minus of 39 percent. “You will also have to deal with the municipalities who should issue extended permits. New concepts for external concessions are necessary here. That will certainly not be possible overnight, but we should initiate a process of rethinking. Because there will be more and more people – even after the end of the pandemic – who prefer to sit outside regardless of the weather, “explains Bernd Riegger.

Mitchells & Butlers is now number one in Germany in the leisure gastronomy segment (according to the annual survey by the industry magazine foodservice) and, due to its stable economic situation, a welcome tenant who receives many real estate offers. Riegger therefore appeals to the landlords of retail and restaurant space to urgently rethink if they do not want to trigger a painful structural change through vacancies in inner cities through exorbitant rents, which is reinforced by Corona. “Because the high rents can no longer be passed on to the price calculations.”, Says the restaurateur, “A 0.3 l Pils for six euros is a price that one could in no way pass on to the market.” In addition, Riegger would have liked – not least on the basis of the new legal basis – greater concession on the part of the landlords in the Corona crisis. “We just fell on almost deaf ears with many of them.” The in-house development team is already thinking about including relevant clauses in future contracts.

Crisis as an opportunity

Mitchells & Butlers, like almost all gastronomy, developed a high level of creativity during the crisis. On the one hand, this was necessary in order to master all the challenges, but on the other hand it generated many new ideas. They should now flow into the further development of the ALEX concept and give the 40 existing companies a completely new look, as was last implemented in 2004. The considerations on this have been around for a long time; Corona gave them an additional boost and initiated new empirical values. With three pilots, it should be launched in 2022 and into a new phase of expansion.

The lockdowns made one thing abundantly clear: most people have sorely missed dining out. They are an important link in the social fabric and act as a central communication point. The ALEX experience gastronomy concept plays (not only) an important role as a “consolation donor” after the restart. Because it offers uncomplicated full-service catering – morning, noon, evening, always. No matter whether you just want to drink a coffee, enjoy a cocktail or eat a high-quality steak. This focus is to be further strengthened – also on enlarged and year-round outdoor terraces. Bernd Riegger: “The crisis has shown us that we are absolutely right with our business model. We have therefore not experimented with delivery or food boxes, but want to develop what we do best.” The strategy for the coming years is therefore clearly geared towards concept renewal and expansion. And if the weather and the virus play along, it should also be affordable. Bernd Riegger is currently assuming a slightly better result for the current year than in 2020 and is hoping for at least 80 million euros in sales.

About Mitchells & Butlers

(ALEX, Brasserie, Miller & Carter) Mitchells & Butlers plc. was founded in 1898. The leading operator of pubs and restaurants in Great Britain (around 1,700 outlets, including brands such as All Bar One, Miller & Carter, Vintage Inn, Toby Carvery) recorded sales of 1.48 billion pounds in 2020 (as of September 26) ( 2.24 previous year). The German ALEX group was taken over in 1999 and has been continuously expanded since then. The Mitchells & Butlers Germany GmbH, Wiesbaden (Managing Director: Bernd Riegger), is responsible for the management of this innovative leisure catering and full-service concept, under whose aegis the “Brasserie” and the new “Miller & Carter Steakhouse” concept are operated become. In 2020 (as of December 31), it generated sales of EUR 76.8 million (125.8 in the previous year; 39% decrease due to corona). Among the top-selling leisure catering companies in the German system catering segment, Mitchells & Butlers has been in the top three since 2004 (1st place in 2020). www.mabg.de, www.dein-alex.de Locations: 40 ALEX, 3 brasseries, 1 Miller & Carter in 34 German cities: Aachen, Berlin (3), Bielefeld (1 ALEX, 1 brasserie), Braunschweig, Bremen (2), Chemnitz, Dortmund, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt (3 ALEX, 1 Miller & Carter), Fürth, Gütersloh, Hamburg (2), Karlsruhe, Kassel, Koblenz, Leipzig, Ludwigshafen, Magdeburg, Mainz, Mülheim adR, Munich (2), Münster (brasserie), Nuremberg, Oberhausen, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Potsdam, Regensburg, Rostock, Saarbrücken (1 ALEX, 1 brasserie), Solingen, Wiesbaden and Zwickau.

Press contact:

SvdH PR – Sabine von der Heyde
Phone: 08093-999931-0
Email: [email protected]

Original content from: Mitchells & Butlers Germany GmbH, transmitted by news aktuell

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