Restaurants & Catering

The average Swiss restaurant and catering business is valued at 2.0 - 3.5× EBITDA on a statutory (tax-based) basis and 3.0 - 5.0× EBITDA in actual transactions. The spread between statutory and deal multiples represents an arbitrage opportunity for informed buyers. The market trend is rated as stable, with an arbitrage gap rated as medium, although restaurant revenue in the KOF/GastroSuisse survey fell for three quarters in a row to -4.5% in the second quarter of 2026. In this niche the multiple depends on how long the lease runs and whether it can be transferred, how much of the business depends on the owner in the kitchen or front of house, and, for contract caterers, how long the institutional mandates run before they are retendered.

Key valuation drivers include: Employment grew through the pandemic cycle: 178,731 employees in 2024, 2.7% more than in 2019 (BFS STATENT); Contract catering runs on multi-year mandates: ZFV's contract catering revenue rose CHF 5.6 million to CHF 205 million in 2025, and SV calls Swiss contract catering its core business. Factors that can compress valuations include: Small units: restaurants, snack bars, tea rooms and gelaterias average 7.5 employees (140,036 across 18,698 enterprises); Revenue fell for three quarters in a row: -0.3% in Q4 2025, -3.7% in Q1 2026 and -4.5% in Q2 2026 (KOF/GastroSuisse). Deal multiples typically range from 3.0 - 5.0× EBITDA, but actual prices vary significantly based on customer concentration, management quality, revenue predictability, and geographic reach within Switzerland's 26 cantons.

The Federal Statistical Office counted 22,900 food and beverage service enterprises in 2024, with 178,731 employees and 125,522 full-time equivalents (BFS STATENT). They comprise 18,698 restaurants, snack bars, tea rooms and gelaterias, 598 restaurants with rooms, 1,351 event caterers, 236 other food service providers such as contract caterers, 1,793 bars and 224 clubs. Zurich has the most enterprises (3,391), followed by Bern (2,417), Vaud (2,224), Geneva (1,764), Valais (1,598) and Ticino (1,508). The February 2026 edition's ~32,000 companies and ~230,000 employees could not be traced; GastroSuisse's figure of about 270,000 employees covers the whole hospitality industry including hotels.

No published statistic measures the age of Swiss restaurant owners or how many lack a successor. The February 2026 edition's "~60% of owners aged 55+ without a succession plan", its 30% of new restaurants closing within three years and its GastroSuisse estimate of thousands of businesses seeking succession could not be traced to a dated source and are removed. The statistics show a market of small units: 18,698 restaurant, snack bar, tea room and gelateria enterprises average 7.5 employees, and the number of food service enterprises has barely changed since 2011, so change happens through closures and new openings rather than net growth. That turnover is now under strain: new commercial register entries in hospitality fell 4% in January-November 2025, while hospitality bankruptcies rose 45%, largely because public creditors must now pursue unpaid taxes and contributions through bankruptcy. Contract caterers transfer more easily because revenue sits in institutional mandates, but a buyer should check each mandate's term and retender date. For restaurants, the checks are the remaining lease term and whether the lease can be transferred, whether the cantonal operating licence is tied to the current owner, how much of the business depends on the owner as chef or host, the drinks share of revenue, and staff classification under the L-GAV. Deal multiples for the sector typically run 3.0 - 5.0× EBITDA.

Four trends define the sector in 2026: (1) Three quarters of falling revenue — Restaurant revenue in the KOF/GastroSuisse survey fell 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025, 3.7% in the first quarter of 2026 and 4.5% in the second quarter. (2) More people, fewer hours — Food service employed 178,731 people in 2024, 2.7% more than in 2019, but full-time equivalents fell 2.8% in a year to 125,522 (BFS STATENT). (3) Contract catering is where the scale is — Contract catering is concentrated in a few employers: the 236 enterprises in other food services employed 11,225 people in 2024, 48 per enterprise, against 7.5 per enterprise in restaurants (BFS STATENT). (4) Parliament sets pay floors, tips and debt collection rules — In June 2026 both chambers of Parliament agreed that minimum wages in generally binding collective agreements such as the L-GAV take precedence over cantonal minimum wages, with a rule that prevents wage cuts in Geneva and Neuchâtel.

The principal acquisition risks are: (1) Demand is the main obstacle: 53.9% of restaurants cited insufficient demand in Q2 2026 and 43.7% reported falling demand; (2) Staff cuts are spreading: 19.1% of hospitality businesses reduced staff in Q2 2026; (3) Hospitality bankruptcies rose 45% in January-November 2025, largely because the debt enforcement law revised in January 2025 makes public creditors pursue bankruptcy. Buyers should conduct thorough due diligence on customer concentration, regulatory compliance, and key-person dependencies. Deal multiples of 3.0 - 5.0× EBITDA may be discounted for firms with elevated risk profiles.

An indicative cost split for a Swiss restaurant is: Personnel (kitchen, service, management): 38%, Food and beverage purchases: 30%, Rent and occupancy costs: 10%, Energy and utilities: 5%, Marketing, technology and administration: 4%, Depreciation and maintenance (equipment, fit-out): 5%, Profit margin (EBITDA): 8%. Indicative split for an independent Swiss restaurant that leases its premises. The February 2026 edition attributed this breakdown to the GastroSuisse Branchenspiegel, which is available only to members and could not be checked, and gave food costs of 35-40% for fine dining, EBITDA margins of 8-15% for contract caterers and personnel costs of 25-30% for fast-casual concepts without a traceable source; the attribution and those ranges are withdrawn. Personnel costs start from the L-GAV minimum wages, which for 2026 range from CHF 3,713 a month for staff without an apprenticeship to CHF 5,293 for staff with a professional examination. In the survey, drinks were weaker than food: in the second quarter of 2026, 47.5% of restaurants sold fewer drinks than a year earlier and 43.6% served fewer meals. For a buyer, the lease and the staffing plan decide most of the margin, so both should be tested against the current owner's own hours in the business.

Switzerland's restaurant and catering businesses cluster in five regions: (1) Zurich (ZH) — 3,391 food service enterprises in 2024, 14.8% of the national total, but 46,213 employees, a quarter of the sector's workforce (BFS STATENT). (2) Vaud and Geneva (VD/GE) — 3,988 food service enterprises with 30,176 employees in 2024: Vaud 2,224 enterprises and 17,636 employees, Geneva 1,764 and 12,540. (3) Bern (BE) — 2,417 food service enterprises with 16,833 employees in 2024, the second-largest count after Zurich, averaging 4.5 full-time equivalents. (4) Valais, Ticino and Graubünden (VS/TI/GR) — 3,887 food service enterprises with 22,133 employees in 2024: Valais 1,598, Ticino 1,508 and Graubünden 781. (5) St. Gallen, Aargau and Thurgau (SG/AG/TG) — 3,333 food service enterprises with 18,208 employees in 2024: St. Gallen 1,345, Aargau 1,329 and Thurgau 659. Full-time equivalents per enterprise range from 9.9 in Zurich, where large groups are registered, to 2.8 in Thurgau, against a national average of 5.5.