owning a bar in Spain

pgj2015

Anyone experience of this?

I see you can buy them for as little as 60,000 euro. what is the catch? the bars I was looking at was bars on strips of busy tourist areas. clubbing towns.

I would like to own/lease a bar at some stage but obviously wont be buying one now.

ironclaw

Speaking as someone with both experienced in the pub trade and no longer being in it, my first recommendation is to work in one for a few years before ever considering the purchase of one. Like restaurants, unless you have everything perfect, there are so many things to trip you up, big and small.

In terms of cost, there is nothing more suspicious than a bar being sold cheap. A good bar can make serious money so if it's going for a song, there is a reason for it. In Ireland, the only bar worth buying is one with solid footfall and serves food.

Personally I have limited experience in Spain with respect to the pub sector but I do have some on the accommodation side. Costs are generally far lower in Spain but the bureaucracy is far higher. You have local, provincial and country levels of government, that doesn't always move in the same direction, and when they do move, it's slow. I'd only consider owning a business out there if I intended to live/retire there, it would be too hard to manage from a distance.

banie01

Iron Claws advice is good.

I've done quite a bit of time in Spain both working and owning.
Was also a Leasee here until @2007.

Spain in particular is a young man's/woman's game.

The Bars available at 60k in busy areas are usually Se Traspasa, for lease rather than for sale.
60k, and the monthly rent need to be a counted for before any profit can be expected.

Bureaucracy will break your heart, as will the kickbacks and low level corruption.
The margin there is better than here, but the hours are hard.
Particularly if your trade is primarily evenings, a lot of resort bars base their trade on hrs between 8pm and 4am, yet all your deliveries and actual admin will be done in the main between 8-12am.
It puts huge financial pressure on smaller bars.
Do you as the owner work the hours?
Or is your margin sufficient to hire staff?

Food and kitchen costs to consider too, a lot of day trading bars rely on food to pull business in.
Be it breakfast and pints or lunches.

Working in a Kitchen that will hit nearly 50c when the plancha and all the other equipment is running...
It's a hell not soon forgotten.

neris

Theres a reason those 60k bars are so cheap and change hands regularly. Footfall might do you ok between May & September but those customers arent regulars and you wont get regulars. Watch those Brits in the sun type programmes on TV and you,ll see the kind of customer you,ll be getting to. We have a neighbour over in Spain who owns one of the bars in our urbanisation. Opened about 15 years ago and is the only one of a number of bars in that space of time that hasnt changed hands multiple times or gone out of business. Good service, good set up, nice inside and outside areas and customers with a bit of money who may not live in the area but are back & forth and regular. You pay fr what you get and for 60k you,ll get dregs. The other thing with those cheap bars is the owners/previous owners think its all great fun to go to spain but have a "were on holiday" mentality so the bars arent run as efficent businesses.

Outkast_IRE

Honestly i wouldnt wish it on anyone. The only lads i know who are doing it successfully are in the game over there for a long time, know the areas they are setting up in very well, have established relationships with locals.

Its thankless work and its cutthroat in the sense that just when you think you have things going right, a new bar may open up nearby and undercut everyone for months.

As mentioned by others for 60k you will not be getting a bar with amazing turnover.

To really make good money over there you need to be busy from breakfast until the early hours of the morning.

Feenix

My folks have owned a bar in Spain since 2001. Its established now and I think they enjoy the community aspect although it probably wasn't the soundest investment looking back on it. I dont think they enjoyed it at first; took a bit of time to get rid of people they didn't want in the place.
It's not for me, i find the whole Brit ex pat scene a bit grim and gets a bit stale after a while although its not a Benidorm or resort type place they are in.
They make a solid living; no chance of making a fortune at €2 a pint or through the type of clientele you generally get in Spain be it Spanish or ex-pats.
They were working 7 days a week in the beginning and i got the feeling they wondered why they bothered. They still work 6 or 7 days a week now but they have the luxury of taking a week off here and there to visit somewhere else in Spain or come back here. They've made a lot of friends at this stage and are heavily involved in the community through the bar so no regrets I think. There's nothing glamorous about it though from what I've seen.

Make It Real

Great advice to separate the sunny holiday feeling from the business idea.

If you could get the same bar with the same potential for the same money in say, Waterford or Leeds or Bremen, would you do it?

Any sun you'd be seeing in Spain would be through a window for a long time, as others here say!

pgj2015

Make It Real wrote: »

Great advice to separate the sunny holiday feeling from the business idea.

If you could get the same bar with the same potential for the same money in say, Waterford or Leeds or Bremen, would you do it?

Any sun you'd be seeing in Spain would be through a window for a long time, as others here say!

maybe but yeah Spain or somewhere sunny would be a draw. i would probably be getting someone to run the pub anyway to be honest, i wouldn't want to be chained to it, it wont be my only business that i will be running at the time.

neris

This sounds more like a pipe dream then a realistic change in life. The suns a draw but you dont want to actually run the business. If the suns what your into just go on holiday or move there and get a job. Your looking at the dregs of bars at such at low price and I can only imagine the kind of areas your looking at. Have to ask but do you know anything about living in Spain, doing business in Spain, reliable contacts to assist you and do you have the language

pgj2015

neris wrote: »

This sounds more like a pipe dream then a realistic change in life. The suns a draw but you dont want to actually run the business. If the suns what your into just go on holiday or move there and get a job. Your looking at the dregs of bars at such at low price and I can only imagine the kind of areas your looking at. Have to ask but do you know anything about living in Spain, doing business in Spain, reliable contacts to assist you and do you have the language

I just came across bars for sale in Spain and I said I would ask about it on here to see what was what. some of them seem very cheap, obviously I knew there would be a catch but it is interesting hearing the views of people who have experience of bars like these. who knows if I will ever purchase a bar but I am an entrepreneur and like exploring different options.

I have been to the clubbing spots in Spain many times, I love the scene to be honest, a few British lager louts wouldn't put me off.

ironclaw

pgj2015 wrote: »

I have been to the clubbing spots in Spain many times, I love the scene to be honest, a few British lager louts wouldn't put me off.

For what it's worth, I'd urge caution in making your job something you love as recreational past time. For example, being a DJ and going clubbing is very different. I did both and honestly, it sucked most of the fun out of it. Likewise, working in a bar, there are only so many nights you can take the same old conversation from the same old lad that won't leave because he literally has nowhere else to go.

I'd strongly urge you to work in a bar for two years or more before remotely considering the purchase of one, and even then I would try to have a mentor or experienced member in your team.

Brexit also brings challenges as you will likely see a sell off of some British owned assets but that is a double-edged sword as there is so much uncertainty as to if ex-pats can stay. The Spanish have no desire to sit in an average pub on a weekday so you'll really need razor tight market research.

neris

pgj2015 wrote: »

I just came across bars for sale in Spain and I said I would ask about it on here to see what was what. some of them seem very cheap, obviously I knew there would be a catch but it is interesting hearing the views of people who have experience of bars like these. who knows if I will ever purchase a bar but I am an entrepreneur and like exploring different options.

I have been to the clubbing spots in Spain many times, I love the scene to be honest, a few British lager louts wouldn't put me off.

Just out of curiosity what part of spain are you looking at?

EndaHonesty

pgj2015 wrote: »

Anyone experience of this?

I see you can buy them for as little as 60,000 euro. what is the catch? the bars I was looking at was bars on strips of busy tourist areas. clubbing towns.

I would like to own/lease a bar at some stage but obviously wont be buying one now.

It looks to me like banie01's most important point was missed.



For 60k it's not freehold, you're buying a lease off the current tenant.

You will have monthly rent to pay to the actual owner of the premises.

pgj2015

neris wrote: »

Just out of curiosity what part of spain are you looking at?

Ibiza, magaluf etc

Outkast_IRE

pgj2015 wrote: »

Ibiza, magaluf etc

Each to their own when looking at this type of venture but if you do market research you will find the ownership of the bars in these areas changes frequently in alot of cases. You are competing to be the cheapest in many cases having to offer freebies to get customers in.

If i was eyeing up a bar in Spain, i would be trying to identify locations where there is a significant expat community but maybe a top class bar has not yet been established. If you can get the right location and build slow and steady you end up with many year round customers and will still get a massive summer boost.

My father bought a property in Spain about 20 years ago , along with many other irish and british at the same time. Some of the bars established right at the start of this period are now part of the central hub of the Irish for miles around. Golfing Society , bus trips to europa and champions league matches etc. all built up over many years. Look them up below on trip advisor, i have never seen an Irish bar done better abroad.

https://www.paddys-point.com/