In short
- Turnover rose by almost 4 percent in 2025, but hardly any more guests came: according to KHN, volume grew by 1 percent.
- Fewer hospitality businesses went bankrupt than in 2024, but according to KHN one in five owners has a debt problem.
- In 2023, restaurants and catering together threw away 83 million kilos of food. Every recipe that is exactly right helps.
More turnover, about the same number of guests
According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), hospitality turnover in 2025 was 3.9 percent higher than a year earlier. Restaurants, cafés and bars did better than hotels and campsites: up 4.8 percent against 1.7 percent. That sounds like growth, but the Dutch hospitality association KHN calculates that volume, the number of items sold, rose by only 1 percent. Most of the growth comes from higher prices.
For the kitchen this means: the guest pays more for the same plate and expects it to taste and look the same every night. A portion that is 160 grams one day and 200 the next costs margin and trust.
+1%growth in volume in 2025, against +3.8% turnover (KHN)
Fewer cafés, more takeaway
The total number of venues stayed almost the same: KHN counted 43,606 hospitality locations at the end of 2025, 278 fewer than a year before. Within that list, a lot has shifted since early 2020.
| Type of venue | Change since early 2020 |
|---|---|
| Cafés and nightclubs | −21.39% |
| Fast service | +14.33% |
| Delivery and takeaway | +48% |
Source: KHN, review and outlook at Horecava, January 2026.
Bankruptcies: fewer than in 2024
CBS counted 347 bankruptcies in hospitality in 2025, against 377 in 2024. Across all sectors, the number fell by 15 percent. That is good news, but it is not the whole story. According to KHN, 20 percent of owners have a debt problem and 12 percent are unsure whether the business will continue next year.
- 347 bankruptcies in 2025, 30 fewer than in 2024 (CBS)
- 44% of owners are (very) optimistic about their own business (KHN)
- 20% have a debt problem (KHN)
- 12% are not sure the business will still exist next year (KHN)
What keeps owners up at night
In KHN’s member survey, owners name three worries for 2026 most often. Two of them hit the kitchen directly: what staff cost and what ingredients cost.
| Biggest worry for 2026 | Named by |
|---|---|
| Employer costs | 70% |
| Rising purchasing costs | 66% |
| Regulation and red tape | 54% |
Source: KHN member survey, January 2026. Among hotels, 82% name the VAT increase as the biggest challenge.
Staff: the vacancies remain
KHN speaks on behalf of more than 520,000 hospitality workers. Still, places stay empty: according to the hospitality factsheet of the Dutch government’s business portal, there were 25,200 open vacancies in the third quarter of 2026, against 28,100 a quarter earlier.
In the kitchen you see this in new faces who have to keep up fast, interns who stay only a few months and stand-ins on busy nights. The faster someone sees how a dish is made here, the less the chef has to explain during service.
Share with your brigadeEveryone in the kitchen team works from the same approved version of the recipe.→Waste: 83 million kilos from restaurants and catering
According to the food waste monitor of Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands wasted 2,271 million kilos of food in total in 2023, 127 kilos per person. Restaurants and catering together accounted for 83 million kilos. Most is still lost in people’s homes, but hospitality is a part you control yourself.
The Dutch government reports that total food waste fell by 17 percent from 2015 to 2023. So it can be done.
83 million kilosof food wasted by restaurants and catering in 2023 (WUR)
- Scale recipes exactly to the number of covers, not by feel.
- Write down what a portion weighs, so everyone serves the same.
- Turn leftovers into a base recipe of their own (a stock, a crumble) and write it down.
- After a week, look at what was left and adjust the quantities in the recipe.
What this means in your kitchen
None of these figures is solved by a single app. But there is a pattern: the places that make it know what goes on the plate, what it costs and who makes it. That starts with recipes that are right, that everyone can find and that you can scale without mistakes. That is what Savour is made for.
Scale recipesFrom 8 covers to 120, with the quantities converted exactly.→Sources
All figures come from public sources, most of them in Dutch. The year is always given with the figure: newer figures may differ.
- CBS: hospitality turnover grows by over 3 percent in the fourth quarter (2 March 2026)
- CBS: 18 percent fewer bankruptcies in December than a year earlier (12 January 2026)
- KHN: press release, review and outlook at Horecava (January 2026)
- Ondernemersplein: hospitality factsheet
- WUR: Food Waste Monitor, update 2009-2023
- Dutch government: food waste down 17% since 2015 (4 September 2025)
Figures updated to November 2026. When these sources publish new figures, we will update this article.