It is often thought of restorationespecially those linked to family sagas of chefs, as a sector reluctant to new technologies and management methods. Nothing could be further from the truth: the professionalization of the hospitality industry is gaining ground not only because it is a factor in business profitability, but also a guarantee of loyalty to origins to carry out more genuine projects. This was one of the aspects that was discussed yesterday. Thomas Abellanchef and businessman, and Nino Redruellopartner and chef of Familia La Ancha, at the colloquium Shuttle Madrid-Barcelona. Restoration Sector held at the Palau Macaya in Barcelona.
“Being more digital allows you to be more human. Having more data about what happens in homes allows you to be a better person, to be more of who you wanted to become. Now we are in a time in the hospitality industry in which everything is management, management and management. The value is not only that they enter your house, but knowing how to do it so that you get the numbers,” Redruello reasoned. Abellán stated that precisely the use of analysis tools helps “to be calmer to search for those origins and not lose the essence.”
“In my case I try to have a balance. I look at the data, but I don’t pay much attention to it. Since I take several orders a day I have a fifty fifty between the data and my experience. The decisions were made by intuition, based on what excites me. Maybe I can have a rarer dish on the menu that doesn’t come out as much, but if I sell it better in the dining room, I might be able to attract a new customer,” he explained.
“Every month we produce an engineering with the satisfaction of each dish and we do a survey of the restaurant managers about the customers’ perception. And with that data we make decisions. But you can never forget the intuition of the hotelier and that you feel like making a dish,” summarized the businessman.
The Familia La Ancha partner saw it in a similar way: “I’m a personality obsessive. The houses are born from the will of a chef to tell something, to think about cooking what we like. We have come to Barcelona with tripe, ear, lentils… you don’t know if it will catch on or not, but it motivates you to send that message.” “The cool thing is that your star dish generates more value and makes people come back,” he joked while acknowledging that this coincidence does not always happen.
The fact that both chefs let themselves be guided by their instincts does not mean that they have given up on professionalize your businesses. On the contrary, it is a general trend in restaurants that contrasts with the lesser business vision of past generations, including those of their parents. “Leaving a hospitality family has its complexes. I had to understand all the good things that had been left to me and the limits of the old hospitality industry that are no longer valid. Someone from outside had to come to professionalize the company, to loosen the ways of manage the old kitchen and learn that this professionalization is important,” said Redruello. “I inherited a house where the reservation book was from Codorníu and reservations were made by telephone. Now we have offices with 30 people, everything divided into apartments, everything digital… you have to free yourself from the family part but keep what well,” he acknowledged.
Investment funds
This operating scheme also results in a improved profitability and greater cost control. “Before the professional change that my company went through three years ago, we would get to the end of the month and wonder how much the business had left. Now we have budgets, objectives… Suddenly it is no longer how much has left, but what the budget is and where we have to go,” said the Familia La Ancha chef.
Although Abellán said that his business structure is lighter, he also acknowledged that he has followed the same path. “I hired an operations director, with whom we have a weekly meeting, and another with those in charge,” he said. Although, as with culinary intuition, the businessman declared that he is not a “numbers freak”: “As long as you eat well, the waiters are friendly and there is a profit… I try to have an EBITDA of between 10% and 15%, but I don’t shy away from it either because I understand that life fluctuates and there are seasons.
This point of view is what, in his case, has led him to be cautious in exploring alliances with investment fundswho have recently been courting the hospitality industry: “I prefer to go little by little doing my project and be calmer than having tense meetings of numbers with people who don’t know the sector.” In any case, to open up to investment capital it is advisable to find the “partner who agrees with you in values”, and that is “complicated”. However, as Redruello added, you should not be closed to the appearance of “a fund that is aligned with what you would like to become and that improves and contributes to you.”
At this point, they both cited the case of the Roca brothers as a paradigm of sustained growth for 40 years until reaching world renown. Times that, according to Abellán, do not coincide with those of capital. “We are at this moment in society when everything is going fast, everything is for yesterday, but ours is a sector that needs time, it is not instantaneous. The intention of the funds is that everything must go quickly,” he lamented.
Redruello contributed this reflection: “When the family offices It was in my father’s time, when a restaurant left one money for which now you need four. Now with one restaurant it is more difficult than with three or foursince if I have volume I can spend. Maybe with four you are more stable than with one.” Tomás also pointed out that his father, Carlos, “earned a much better living 20 years ago, with two or three joints, when it was a little easier than now.”
New projects
On the other hand, both restaurateurs shared their future projects both in Barcelona and in other Spanish and foreign cities. Redruello explained that “all I wanted was not to destroy my great-grandfather’s La Ancha, it was my only obsession.” “That has made us be free and grow from the romanticism of I would love to do this, full stop. Because of this brave way of understanding the hospitality industry, we have attracted people with amazing talent that has positioned the company for us,” he said.
Thanks to this foundation, the group can grow “with a feeling of control and of minimizing failures much less than before.” Among his next plans is the opening of a Fismuler in Lisbonnext March, and two others in Seville and Mexicoalthough these latter establishments are not yet completely closed. Currently, the brand has two restaurants in Barcelona and Madrid.
He added that “we will open weekly Santa La Taberna de La Ancha in T4 and we are looking for premises for two more projects.” One of them will focus on fast foodwhich Redruello considered a “scalable segment,” and another in the hospitality. “Hotels need to associate themselves with brand levers that attract and with values that hospitality intrinsically has,” he explained.
For his part, Abellán announced that “I have a couple of projects on the table, one half closed, one little Alegría in the Raval [su buque insignia es el Bar Alegría, un negocio centenario del que tomó las riendas en 2019]which will have a very similar concept of recovering the traditional and emblematic bars of the city.” He defined it as a “romantic project that will not be super profitable but of which I would very much like to be a part.”
In addition, in April it will reopen Beautiful House in Sant Josep de sa Talaiain Ibiza, being the third year in which this asset operates on the island. “It is not a beach clubwe are a little in the circuit outsider of people who live on the island and have a little more sensitivity with the product,” he added. Abellán did not rule out the opening of a restaurant in Madrid, although he highlighted the management difficulties of living in Barcelona and having businesses in the capital. Spanish.
Looking for personnel
In this sense, both hoteliers shared their points of view on the cultural differences between both cities. “We are much more different than I imagined when we came to Barcelona seven years ago. One of the nice things is learning from Madrid how different Madrid is, and also what I have learned in Barcelona, when you go to a new city The way the hospitality industry communicates culturally with the customer is different. I go through Barcelona and any neighborhood cafe seems very different in management,” said Redruello.
But the differences are not only limited to the management part, but extend to the dynamics of the clientele itself. “The customer’s way of behaving is also different. In Barcelona it costs much more at midday, while in Madrid everything happens at the work lunch, everyone meets to eat. And that makes Madrid very balanced at times of consumption of the hospitality industry. At midday it is at its peak and at night it is at its peak. And here in Barcelona it costs us more at midday than at night,” he stated.
They also addressed the problem of finding workersone of the issues that has come to the fore in recent times in the sector. “The agreement is different in Madrid and Barcelona, this conditions a little,” said the Familia La Ancha partner. To the extent that a group has less exposure in one city or another, it may be more difficult for it to recruit personnel, although Redruello acknowledged that in Barcelona “it is much more difficult for us to find people who take root in the project, who are hooked on our values.” and that they are there for a certain time.”
Redruello attributed it to the greatest presence of tourists in Barcelona. “I understand that if you have tourists who come and go and are never coming back, maybe it makes you relax more,” he suggested as a hypothesis.
“I have the feeling, and I hope I’m wrong, that in Madrid they have a little more affection and respect for the hospitality industry. Here in Barcelona, both on the part of the teams and the clients, there is not so much respect. Just as You have exceptional waiters and customers in Madrid, I don’t know if I see it as much in Barcelona,” Abellán said.
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