Many restaurants in Blagoevgrad are going bankrupt

Many restaurants in Blagoevgrad, Southwestern Bulgaia, are going bankrupt.

In the past year, dozens of restaurants, cafes and fast food establishments were closed.

The industry expects that the winter will be very hard because of high inflation and heating bills. Restaurateurs also complain that fewer people are dining out.

In the centre of Blagoevgrad, dozens of restaurants and cafes have closed in the past month. This is also the situation with smaller neighbourhood restaurants. People in the city say they do not dine out as often as before because of the high prices.

There are three main reasons for the bankruptcy of the restaurants in the city, the industry says. The first is inflation, the second is high prices of energy and the third is that staff insist on getting high monthly wages, unaffordable for the owners.

"With the profit, we have to pay the electricity bills, costs to the workers, insurance, social security, taxes, profit tax and it becomes unaffordable for a place to stay open," said Vasil Dimitrov, owner of a restaurant chain.

The industry expects a hard winter with many bankruptcies, especially if VAT is brought back to its usual rate. During the cold months, heating costs rise and visits to the establishments drops.

"At the moment we don't have any predictability from the state. We don’t know if the 9% VAT rate will remain in effect, if it goes back to 20% then it will be even worse. And even with the help we get, electricity is 4 times more expensive than in 2019 for a simple site like mine," added Vasil Dimitrov.

Most families have calculated that going out to a restaurant is something they should deprive themselves of in order to be able to cover their other expenses.

"After all, customers, in one way or another, feel the crisis, they have to cut their spendings, no one would rather cut the budget from takeaway food to go to a restaurant," Vasil Dimitrov added.

In Blagoevgrad, dozens of restaurants are already offered on the property market. Most often they are advertised for sale or for rent.