Our costs are rising daily. Salaries in the restaurant and hotel industry in Bulgaria are higher than those in Greece and Spain. This is due to the fact that there are no people to work, not because we have higher incomes. We are forced to pay high salaries so that people can stay working.
This was said on the show "Denyat na Zievo" by Richard Alibegov, chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Restaurants (BAZ).
"90% of us prefer to work with Bulgarians, not with people from third countries. The problem is that people do not want to work in this sector and this is not due to salaries or insurance. There is nothing true in the stories that our salaries are bad or that we provide 4-hour shifts. These are outdated. Young people do not want to do physical labor, and in the restaurant and hotel industry it is precisely physical labor. I have no expectations. In the last 2-3 years, what was said in the election campaign had nothing to do with reality. In the last 2-3 years, we were lied to many times. Now, too, in the election campaign, all kinds of things were said and now nothing. The industry has no expectations," he was categorical.
"There is a division in our country, because the hotel sector cannot have a rate of 9%, and we restaurants have a rate of 20%. It makes no sense for the same industry to have two rates. We have to raise prices and turnover is rising, but our expenses are also rising. I heard it said that since 2019, prices in restaurants have risen by 100%. That's right, but electricity went up by 300% over the same period. Salaries also went up by 300%, water, rents, everything went up by over 100%. There's no way in our country that prices can be raised by 100% year after year and become double, because people won't pay them. I have the feeling that in other areas one lev has become a euro. Before, when you called a handyman to fix something at home, he was given 80-100 leva, and now he's given 80-100 euros, but the National Revenue Agency checks restaurants and cafes every day to see if they've raised prices," concluded Richard Alibegov.