Setting up a fine dining restaurant in Malta : a feasibility study

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of this study is to assess the viability of opening a restaurant in a 5-star hotel and determine whether such proposed project is feasible when considering the site, competitors, market and financial aspects.

Design: This study first analyses current literature on setting up a fine dining restaurant. The dissertation is divided into four main areas, namely, Site Analysis, Competitor Analysis, Market Analysis and Financial Analysis. The methods adopted to conduct this research were observational research, interviews, questionnaires, literature review, and evaluation of the obtained results.

Findings: After the 320 questionnaires were collected and analysed, they helped the researcher to take into consideration the proposed site, competition, consumer demand, consumer average spending, and consumers’ ideas. These were necessary to develop a thorough plan for sales, purchases and to budget for the operations of the proposed venue. Additionally, the interviews with both the Food & Beverage Manager and Head Chef assisted the researcher in understanding better the operations of the proposed restaurant in order to project raw material costs. It was concluded that the proposed venue had positive financial figures, namely, a positive Cash Flow & Profit increasing every consecutive year and a positive Net Present Value.

Conclusions: It was established that the proposed venue is feasible and viable to set up in one of the local five-star hotels in St. Julian’s.

Value: This dissertation provides an in-depth evaluation of consumers on fine dining restaurants, together with the set-up and operations required to assemble the proposed venue.