A sobering snapshot of a restaurant industry grappling with rising costs
94% of businesses expect food costs to continue rising in 2025, with four in five restaurants anticipate cutting staff hours due to wage inflation and increased costs.
“To want to own a restaurant can be a strange and terrible affliction,” said American celebrity chef and author of , Anthony Bourdain. “Why would anyone want to pump their hard-earned cash down a hole that statistically will almost surely prove dry? After many years in the business, I still don’t know.”Â
Those prophetic words may well hang heavily over the restaurant sector this year, given that 150 food businesses have permanently closed their doors in the first three months of 2025. When the Restaurants Association of Ireland recently unveiled the findings of its Cost of Doing Business 2025 survey, the results offered a sobering snapshot of an industry grappling with rising costs, shrinking margins and growing uncertainty about the future.Â
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