The restoration that the Netflix model tries? In any case, this is the bet of the French brand Pizza Del Arte, which has just launched a subscription system to eat in its restaurants.
The concept: you pay 35 euros per month (30 euros the first month) and you can have lunch or dinner once a day in a group restaurant. Launched in October, the service is currently available in 13 of the group’s 200 restaurants: Boulogne-Billancourt, Colmar, Lyon, Metz, Rennes and Toulouse. By joining, customers agree for a period of 6 months.
The subscription refers to a single person and gives access to a single dish from a selection of five pizzas and two pasta dishes to eat on the spot. The client who wants a drink or a coffee will have to pay for it in addition.
The offer therefore seems to be aimed primarily at employees for their midday lunch.
While the Covid and teleworking have reduced attendance at restaurants at lunchtime, the large restaurant chains are tempted to retain their customers with these types of offers. In the United States, the large popular chain Taco Bell offers its customers a taco a day for $10 a month. In France, the British brand Prêt-à-Manger launched a few weeks ago the “Café Pret” subscription that gives access for 25 euros per month (12.50 euros the first) to five drinks per day.
What business model?
A subscription concept that also tempts the most classic restaurants such as the UNI bistro in Lyon. There is no free dish in this establishment but there are lower prices for customers who have subscribed to a subscription of 5.90 euros per month. For example, you will pay for your chicken porcini with mushrooms 7.90 euros instead of 13.90 euros which is the price shown on the menu.
If this business proposition is attractive to the customer, is there a viable business model for the restaurants that try it? Industry experts doubt it.
Del Arte’s offer refers to dishes at 8 euros. At a rate of 2.5 times per week, this represents a cost of 80 euros per month for only 35 euros paid. Therefore, success is based on the extras that the customer will take away and that are not included in the package, such as a drink, a dessert and a coffee.
The economic model of these subscriptions is mainly based on the extras that the customer will pay additionally. Here again, the Prêt-à-Manger concept, which only gives access to one drink, seems more conducive to impulse purchases.
Source: BFM TV
