VAT rates, minimum wage, currency, market figures and every download follow your choice.
Rising labour costs, changing tax rates, thin margins: pricing with a flat mark-up leaves money on the table. Bauch Food Concept GmbH makes your business financially manageable, with contribution margin pricing, KPIs for your type of business and remote consulting across Europe.
NewFree guide: Understanding Hospitality Economics, for non-specialists (PDF)A labour cost ratio of 30 percent used to be the benchmark. Many businesses can no longer reach it. Germany, Europe's largest hospitality market, shows how fast costs are moving.
statutory minimum wage in Germany since 1 January 2026, rising to €14.60 in 2027.
Source [1]VAT on restaurant food in Germany since 1 January 2026. Drinks remain at 19 %.
Source [2]labour costs in German hospitality from January 2022 to May 2025. Main courses rose by only 26 %.
Source [3], Federal Statistical Office datalabour cost as a share of sales in many traditional restaurants.
Source [3]The consequence: percentage rules lead to the wrong prices. What matters is how many euros each dish contributes to your fixed costs after food and labour.
How restaurants, cafés, hotels and staff restaurants make money, and why some fail despite full tables. The guide explains the commercial mechanics in plain language, with worked examples, charts and referenced market data. Written for investors, lenders, owners, landlords, companies with a staff restaurant and career changers.
A café has a different cost structure from a hotel restaurant, and a staff canteen is managed quite differently from a takeaway. That is why we work with separate profiles and benchmarks for each type of business.
Broad menu, high service level, lots of manual work in the kitchen. Labour is the biggest lever, followed by food cost on complex components.
Many small tickets, a high share of drinks, often long opening hours. Good locations mean high rents. Average spend and staffing in quiet hours make the difference.
Small menu, short preparation, little service. Food cost is usually higher and labour lower. Success comes from volume, speed and standardisation.
Breakfast, restaurant, banqueting and conferences under one roof. Package prices must be split correctly between food and drinks, and staff are planned across departments.
Staff canteens, campus and hospital catering are not managed by percentage ratios but by cost per meal, utilisation and the operator's subsidy. Tax rules apply as well: in Germany, for example, a meal sold to employees below the official tax value of €4.57 (2026) counts as a taxable benefit [6].
These benchmarks are practical values from Bauch Food Concept GmbH, based on the net sales of each department (as of October 2026) and on experience in German-speaking markets. They are not official limits. Location, concept and ownership shift them in individual cases. The food cost values are consistent with the German Ministry of Finance's audit benchmarks [5].
Traditional mark-up pricing multiplies food cost by a fixed factor, such as three. That ignores how much work goes into a dish. Contribution margin pricing shows, for every product, how much money is left after direct costs to cover rent, energy, management and profit [4].
Net price − food cost
What the dish earns after ingredients.
CM I − labour cost
What remains after food and labour for fixed costs and profit.
CM II − other costs
The operating result, also known as GOP.
By percentage, tea looks far more profitable. In euros, the red wine earns more. Example from the Styrian Chamber of Commerce, Austria [4].
Five topics decide whether a business succeeds. All tools, guides and consulting packages are built around them.
Contribution margin pricing, food and beverage cost tracked separately, labour, fixed and running costs, reading monthly accounts.
Guest structure, positioning, menu engineering by volume and contribution margin, pricing strategy.
Kitchen organisation, mise en place, recipes, hygiene based on HACCP principles, allergen information.
Roles and responsibilities, rotas based on the sales curve, productive hours, onboarding new staff.
Equipment decisions with payback calculations, energy costs, digital tools and AI in the business.
From practice
Many questions can be solved with the right tool. Where that is not enough, consulting comes in, step by step and always within a fixed scope.
Proven PDFs with sources on pricing, KPIs and kitchen organisation. Currently in German.
Ready-to-use frameworks, from costing sheets to onboarding packs.
Four calculators with country settings are available below. Extended versions with saving and reporting will follow.
Fixed-price packages with a clear result, such as a two-week pricing sprint or a review of your monthly accounts.
Longer-term support for repositioning, tenders and contract awards, or as external F&B management. Selected cases only.
For templates and tools you choose: buy once and keep using, or subscribe for ongoing updates. If you would like to be told when they launch, mention it in the contact form.
All calculators run entirely in your browser. Your figures are neither stored nor transmitted. Choose your country first: VAT rates, currency and minimum wage are filled in automatically.
Calculated for Ireland · Change country
As of 10/2026. Sources: HOTREC overview of hospitality VAT rates (1 Jan 2026) [7], Eurostat minimum wages (1 Jan 2026) [8] and national authorities. Every value can be overwritten in the calculators. No liability, please confirm with your tax adviser.
Works out the selling price from food cost, labour time, share of fixed costs and profit target, and compares it with your current menu price.
| Role | Min / portion | Gross hourly wage | Employer on-cost % | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | – | – | ||
Gross hourly wage as per contract. The employer on-cost covers social contributions, paid holiday, sick leave and public holidays. Please use the figure from your accountant.
Rounded up to a clean price step, 0.50 for the euro. Tax rates without liability, please confirm with your tax adviser. Allocating fixed costs this way is a simplified assumption.
Compares your monthly figures with the benchmarks for your type of business. All amounts net, as shown in your monthly accounts.
Benchmarks: practical values from Bauch Food Concept GmbH, as of October 2026, based on German-speaking markets, not official limits. The vertical line marks the target. The check does not replace consulting or a review by your accountant.
For contract catering: what does a meal really cost, and how much subsidy is needed? For Germany the calculator also checks the tax value for meals.
Germany: the tax value for a lunch or dinner in 2026 is €4.57 [6]. If staff pay less, the difference is a taxable benefit. Other rules apply to leased operations and subsidy schemes.
Is the new equipment worth it? Compares the monthly cost of the purchase with savings in energy and labour time.
Simplified calculation without tax effects. Please check depreciation rules and grants with your tax adviser. Saved hours only count if they actually come off the rota or are used elsewhere.
The calculators on this page as a workbook for your business: every dish, every month, saved on your own computer. Set up with your country's VAT rates and sample figures, ready to use and with no subscription.
Practical guides with worked examples, sources and dates. No sign-up. The guide for non-specialists is available in English; the four checklists are currently in German and refer to German tax rules.
For non-specialists: cost structures, break-even, key levers and types of business, with worked examples and nine charts.
Download PDFThe method step by step: labour cost per minute, share of fixed costs, CM I to III, break-even price and menu engineering by contribution margin.
Download PDF (German)Fifteen questions from recipe to tax rate, with a costing sheet for every dish.
Download PDF (German)How to read your monthly accounts, with benchmarks by business type and a monthly sheet for food, drinks, labour and fixed costs.
Download PDF (German)Fixed routines for opening, mise en place and handover, with notes on self-checks and allergen information.
Download PDF (German)
Bauch Food Concept GmbH is led by Georg Bauch, chef and consultant with decades of experience in fine dining, hotels, contract catering and events.
He knows both sides: the full pass on a Saturday night and the monthly accounts at the desk. He structures businesses, builds reliable standards and prepares decision papers that let owners and managers steer with confidence.
His current work includes helping a municipal utility reposition its campus catering and acting as external F&B manager for restaurant businesses.
Tell us briefly about your business and what you need. The first video call takes 30 minutes and is free of charge.
All information without liability. Statutory values can change. Please clarify tax and legal questions with your adviser.