Fast-Food Boom in Austria

The cultivated lunch with business partners at the fancy Italian restaurant at the company’s expense is falling victim to the red pencil. Is everybody now eating at the wurst stand?

Every Austrian household has a yearly average expenditure of 1.900 € for gastronomy. Additonally there is turnover created by tourism, business lunches, festive events etc. These expenses rise from year to year. However what people eat and where they tend to do so is changing steadily. Chain restaurants have already a fraction of 13% of the yearly market potential worth of about 8 bn €. This fraction increases about twice the growth of the total market.

The Fast-Food chains are able to occupy about 40% of the market of chain-catering, the rest of the market is split up between coffee house chains, filialised motorway service areas, restaurants in furniture outlets and hypermarkets and others.

In contrast to many other countries McDonalds is the undisputed market leader in Austria. Entering the market in 1977, the company has now 165 outlets that generate a turnover of more than 400 Mio € per year. BurgerKing follows with a large gap, all other international Fast-Food chains have less than 5 restaurants.