The catering sector is at a critical point. High taxation, explosive increases in electricity and raw materials, successive changes in the regulatory framework, and staff shortages create an environment of “economic suffocation,” as described by Giannis Daveronis, President of the Athens Restaurant Association and General Secretary of POESE.
“In essence, we have a partner inside our businesses – and a partner who is difficult to deal with,” he says, referring to the state and the overall framework of charges and obligations.
Taxation, energy, and a blurred framework
Giannis Daveronis describes a daily reality in which operating costs have spiraled out of control: price increases in basic raw materials, higher energy costs – “the electricity bill has doubled and tripled,” he notes – and high indirect taxes on coffee and soft drinks, with a 24% VAT, burden every dish and every drink served.
At the same time, the regulatory framework becomes increasingly complex: cash registers that must connect to POS and IRIS, which impose additional fees, digital work cards, continuous changes in presumptive taxation. “A difficulty has been created in how one can maintain a business. They put us in a system where we deal less and less with food and customers and more and more with paperwork, regulations, and obligations,” he notes.
He emphasizes that no one questions the need to pay taxes and contributions. The issue, he says, is the level of charges and the overall burden on a sector that is inherently costly: “Catering is not an office where you just turn on a light and work. It requires ovens, refrigerators, lighting, staff, multiple shifts.”
Smaller businesses, flexible models, focus on control
Faced with this reality, G. Daveronis sees downsizing restaurant scale as a key solution.
“Businesses with 150 chairs should become 60–70,” he says. “Fewer seats, less staff, lower rent, and fixed costs – more flexible models where the entrepreneur plays an active role in daily operations. Only in this way, he argues, can there be respectable profitability, without ‘running the business solely for the state.'”
At the same time, he sees great potential in delivery and takeaway, which operate with significantly lower operating costs compared to traditional restaurants and large cafes. “There is a significant increase in small delivery businesses. Large cafes are reduced to one or two in each area and struggle with costs,” he points out.
At the sector level, he considers it crucial to continue applying pressure to the state, with well-documented proposals for tax reductions and rationalization of energy costs: “No one wants closed businesses and lost jobs. Our job is to explain the problems and propose solutions. That is what we do and will continue to do.”
High quality, but uneven progress
Despite the difficulties, the image of Greek catering, especially regarding quality, is, he says, positive. “There is dynamism. Some establishments do very well, others moderately, and others not at all. But overall, the quality is at a high level,” he notes, emphasizing that gastronomy in the islands, tourist destinations, and Athens has improved significantly.
He places particular emphasis on wine, where great progress is observed: “There is a strong effort to properly integrate wine into our businesses, with quality labels and a better approach.”
At the same time, he sees a significant shift in business identity: “multi-business” establishments that served everything – fish, meat, pasta, seafood – are declining, while restaurants and taverns with a clear concept are gaining ground: fish tavern, butcher’s tavern, ouzeri, meat or seafood restaurant, Italian, etc. “We must not lose the traditional taverns that have identity,” he says. “What we experienced for a while, having everything in one business, must be left behind. We need businesses with a clear profile.”
A sector at a crossroads
In summary, Giannis Daveronis describes a sector that, despite creativity and high quality, is severely tested by cost and bureaucracy.
On one hand, entrepreneurs are called to maintain or raise quality, invest in product and experience, and keep tradition alive. On the other, they face a framework that, as he says, “forces us to chase bills, regulations, and taxes instead of focusing on the essence of our work.”
The challenge for the coming years, as he puts it, is twofold: more flexible
