Is there anyone in the forum who has opened a restaurant or food stand business here in Switzerland? I am putting together a business plan for a restaurant and I would like to ask a few questions about costings and timelines which cannot be answer by simple googling. If anyone has experience with opening a restaurant food stand please let me know and I'd love to chat.

One specific question I have to start out are:
1. What is the average cost of build-out for a 60 m2 take-away restaurant with simple design?

Yeah.....this guy can help

Have you tried contacting www.gruenden.ch ?

Link to website in English.

Link to their PDF start-up guide in English.


They're quite helpful and will point you in the right direction if they can't answer questions themselves.

for 60sq meters everything new installed I would calculate around 2-300 000 chf

It was actually one of the reasons I was a bit relieved when the resto I was about to buy fell through cause of the owner.

Also remember your foodcost and staffing are about 2-3x higher then other countries. A waiter here earns 20-30 an hour

I saw that guy's post and was...not enthused to make contact.

Thanks Crumbs and Anthony.
@ Anthony, I have considered the other costs and considered the higher costs considering the country, so I'll be taking donations from whoever has money burning a hole in their pockets .

@ Crumbs, I have looked at the Bewilligungen but do you know if they answer questions in English? I'll contact them anyway, but just wondering.

Thanks everyone.

I would say there is no 'average' build-out cost for a restaurant/take-away...those costs are always dependent on the current condition of the location you are looking at - will it be a complete re-build or just renovating a location currently used? Your biggest investment will be handling the ventilation in the building and that can be quite costly. Someone mentioned a number of about 200-300K for a build-out - that would seem to be a reasonable number to start with, but there are always different issues to think about.

While I probably can't tack an exact number onto what it will cost, there is a reasonable range. And of course it matters if the restaurant were already a take out, what equipment is included, but I think Anthony's "guess" is pretty accurate at least for a starting range considering conversations I've had with other business owners.

well if it already is a restaurant (take away) then you should consider startup cost to be the
fond de commerce (dont know the german word) which is simply the buisiness and not the walls. They are once again extremely overpriced. then there is the permits you need which do not come cheap. It is diffeent for takeouts as you only have to pay to get it and not follow classes.

Then you should have enough money to not make a single dime for 3-6 months to survive. So yes I am gonna stick to my number which would include a 100k fonds de commerce