Before opening a restaurant in Spain, quite serious preparation is required. The restaurant business in Spain is a complex undertaking in an extremely competitive environment, and its success will largely depend on the right strategy.

Opening a restaurant in Spain: preparatory stage

Questions that need to be addressed during the preparation stage:

• Location. The location of the restaurant will largely determine all its activities. The historical center, the coastal zone, the suburbs, the rural hinterland – there are restaurants everywhere. But at the same time, it is necessary to clearly understand who the bet will be placed on: the Spanish public, foreign tourists, representatives of the Russian-speaking diaspora, etc. In some areas, beer taverns will be in demand, in others – gourmet restaurants, in others – fast food restaurants and simple international cuisine.
• Concept. The type of restaurant, cuisine, menu, interior design, name, logo – everything will matter.
• Operating principle. There are restaurants that operate all year round, and there are those that choose the principle of seasonal operation.
• Room. You will need to decide whether to buy the property or rent it. And also, is there a need for repairs, obtaining additional permits and licenses, consent of the condominium, etc. In addition, it is necessary to take into account that the entrance to the restaurant and at least one of the toilets must be equipped for strollers.
• Staff. A restaurant in Spain is often a family business. However, if your own strength and hands are not enough, you will have to invite hired personnel.
• Accounting, tax accounting and legal support. Even before the establishment of a legal entity, it will be necessary to select a consulting firm that will take care of accounting and tax accounting, and will also help in the first stage of opening and developing a business.
• Business start-up costs and profitability. Unfortunately, according to statistics, newly opened restaurants in Spain close within the first one or two years of operation. This is due to poor preparation of the business plan and incorrect calculation of expenses (rent, purchase of equipment, taxes, personnel, social contributions, etc.).

It is also important to decide whether you want to open a business from scratch or are ready to buy an existing one (traspaso). In the first case, the procedure will be standard, common to most legal entities.

Open a restaurant in Spain from scratch

Stages of opening a restaurant in Spain from scratch:

• Selecting an accounting and tax manager and concluding an agreement with him. Such a manager, who will manage the affairs of a new company through outsourcing, can be either a company or an individual entrepreneur: gestoría or asesoría, if we are talking about a consulting firm, or gestor or asesor, if we are talking about an independent specialist.
• Registration of the legal name of the company in the Central Trade Register (Registro Mercantil).
• Selecting a bank, opening an account in the name of the company and placing the authorized capital on it.
• Preparation of constituent documents in notarial form, their registration in the Trade Register, payment of relevant registration taxes, fees and duties.
• Ordering accounting books, complaints and company seals, obtaining appropriate permits and licenses for the premises in which the restaurant will be located, including a license for an outdoor terrace, registering the company with the tax authorities, obtaining a tax number.
• Hiring personnel, drawing up employment contracts, concluding agreements with suppliers.

It will take about a month for notarial and registration actions. It will take much longer to obtain a license to open and operate a business. In this case, the premises can be either owned or rented.

The procedure for obtaining a license includes preparing a technical project, its subsequent approval by the local college of architects, submitting an application to the mayor’s office, paying state fees and waiting for a visit from a municipal technical specialist. If the premises are found to fully comply with all norms of current legislation, the appropriate license will be issued.

If we are not talking about purchasing premises, then at least in the first year of operation the most important expense item will be the purchase of equipment and furniture. Some equipment will be available on the secondary market. In any case, it is recommended to add an additional item to the estimate included in the business plan – 20-25% for unforeseen expenses.

Find a restaurant in Spain in “traspaso”

An alternative to starting a business from scratch is to buy an existing business. In Spain this procedure is called “traspaso”. The new owner buys a completely ready-made business, including equipment and machinery. If desired, you can also retain all or part of the staff.
With traspaso, the buyer of the business receives a clientele, a supplier base, a restaurant brand name, licenses and, of course, an established reputation. Sometimes “traspaso” may include the sale of premises. But, as a rule, the premises belong to a third party, and when selling or buying a business, the lease agreement is simply reissued to the new owner.

It may seem that buying a restaurant in Spain through “traspaso” is the easiest and most profitable way: come in and from the very first day start working in an already promoted place. In principle, this is true, but in order to avoid big problems in the future, even before the notarized re-registration of the statutory documents, you should order and conduct a full accounting and tax audit, because when purchasing a business, the new owner will receive the loans and debts of the previous owner. Debt on payments to suppliers, invoices for electricity and water, as well as debt on taxes and social contributions can be quite large.

It is also necessary to find out the reason for the sale. In Spain, it is not so easy to buy a business that operates stably and generates high income. If the purchase is made in the summer, the potential new owner may be deceived by the good occupancy of the halls and terraces, and understand the real state of affairs only after the end of the high season.

By the way, in the case of “traspaso”, nothing prevents the new owner from rebranding the establishment, changing the name, type of establishment, or creating a new menu. It is also worth considering that in some cities “traspaso” may be the only opportunity to open a restaurant (for example, in Barcelona, ​​in some areas the issuance of licenses for catering establishments has been suspended due to market saturation, therefore, there is nothing left to do but buy a ready-made business with valid licenses).