1. CHAPTER HOW IT ALL BEGAN The whole story actually began in October 1987, as we my wife Klara and I - bought this establishment. To say that "we bought this establishment" isn't quite accurate. The hotel and restaurant Bahnhof (Railway Station) belongs to a real estate corporation, which doesn't own any other real estate. So we bought the totality of the shares of the corporation which owns the restaurant. These details may seem rather farfetched and pedantic, but they have their place in this story.
even
The hotel and restaurant Bahnhof in Granges SO was - and still is - a nice, comfortable establishment with 170 seats - 50 tables - spread over four rooms. The rooms have a timeless charm. Outside is a large terrace with a playground for children and a grill. In the basement we find a cozy lounge with 25 seats. The kitchen, the store room, the various cellars are spacious. On the first floor there is our apartment, the laundry, and three single rooms and a double hotel room. With five hotel beds, Hotel Bahnhof was undoubtedly the littlest hotel in Switzerland. The decision to take over this establishment had been preceded by a long and tedious search for an adequate object: in the Jura, in Central Switzerland, in Western (French speaking)Switzerland, everywhere we had tried our luck, but the demanded prices were too high and made it impossible for us to talk business. There is actually one relevant price or value for a real estate object, and that's the price which allows a fair return on the investment, an adequate upkeep of the place and a commensurate standard of living. A higher price is paid with the intent to speculate on the market or is the result of ignorance and naivity.
In a preparatory course to the catering license, we were taught that the rent - or mortgage interest - for a catering operation varies from 8 to 15% of turnover, depending upon the particularities of the place: 8 to 10% for a restaurant, a hotel with dining room, 15% for a lounge, or a tea room with or without an alcohol license, or a hotel with breakfast only. Whoever pays more goes inevitably bankrupt. And so we had tried our luck and visited many, many advertised places: The Caterers' Review, and many other periodicals as well were full of ads of restaurants and hotel for rent or for sale. There is nothing surprising about it: There are some 26.000 hotels and restaurants in Switzerland and of these, a quarter change hands every year. We had visited many of them and every time we had asked the same two questions: "How much do
you want for the place?" and
"How high is the turnover?" It is easy to figure out the real value of the place, when these two parameters are known: The rent, or interest which the leaseholder or owner can afford to pay without getting into financial trouble is no higher than 10% of the turnover. An establishment with a turnover of, say, 1 million francs allows a rent or mortgage interest with redemption of Fr. 100.000.- a year. If we consider an interest rate of 5,25% plus 1% redemption, also 6,25% in all (Yeah, those were the days...) we come to a fair price of Fr. 1.750.000.- for an establishment in reasonably good shape: 19 or 20 months of activity. This is just an example: Nowadays the bank interests are definitely higher, but the principle of the thing remains. This calculation is simple, and even self evident, but time after time we got confronted with fanciful notions of the value of the place: 25, 32, 40 or even 45 months of sale were demanded. And so, just after the second question, we would change the subject, ask about the
weather and the snow conditions during the season, pay for our cup of coffee and leave.
oncoming
I remember many of these folks: Overworked, sick and tired of everything, the women prematurely old. Some of them would tell us, they had a son, they had kept the place for him all those years, he had enjoyed a thorough training in the best kitchens and in Hotel Trade School as well. He was an excellent cook, but he did not care for the place anymore, he was working as a bookkeeper, or music teacher, or selling antiques. But a nice place it was all the same, well located. Until recently there was a steady clientele. During World War II the Army General Staff was continuously quartered in the hotel, even General Henri Guisan (1)in person had been received as a guest. But now younger people were needed, people like these two, this French speaking Swiss with his funny Teutonic accent and this pleasant Bernese woman. And I still have in mind the hopeful looks, the greedy looks, hope that these two strangers would stay and deliver them from their financial burden, from their everyday worries, from that drudgery. How we had come to Granges? Well, in a way, like the Virgin came to the Child. I had answered an ad and asked for information. On the return mail I had received a full documentation, with plans and drawings, a full description of the house and the mention of the requested price, so far beyond our financial possibilities that we had given up right from the start. A couple of weeks later we had received a letter from the notary in charge of the sale. A polite invitation to visit the place. We had accepted the invitation and had come to Granges, and there we had been taken in charge by two charming gentlemen. They had named the price right from the start: a seven digit figure. We were at the time leaseholders of a run down joint somewhere in the Bernese Oberland. Our financial means were ridiculously low. And presently, on this beautiful June afternoon, we were sitting, Klara and I, with these two charming gentlemen
and I was wondering whether the required price would allow a decent return on investment. The place was existent. The rooms were apparently okay. The structure - the walls, the floors, the roof - also. The garden furniture was run down. There were too many employees. The management was sleazy, that could be read from the bill of fare. What the installations were worth could not be ascertained, and that could go into lots of money. But the cardinal question was: How do Klara and I fit in such an establishment? For this is truly an existential question: Not every catering family fits in a given place. Some like it distinguished and exclusive, others prefer it young, swinging and relaxed. Some cannot boil water without scorching it and some see in an elegant buffet the confirmation of their talent and of their efforts. This is no judgment of values: everybody finds his luck, and there's a lid to every kettle But be it as it may: to lose a clientele, particularly at the start of a catering operation, is a severe setback. There is no warranty that the hoped for crowd will respond. It is just a fact: Caterers and guests get along right from the start, or everything goes down the drain. Well, we had to take a decision: Leasing a joint is almost always a desolate affair: Either you take a new or renovated place and are in for a horrendous rent, or you take a run down operation and pay less. In the first case the financial breakdown is as inevitable as Amen at the end of Mass. In the second place it takes just a little longer before the final crash occurs. On the second case- Klara and I have practiced it three times the new leaseholders go to work with a real thirst for action: They scrub, they clear the place, repair, fix up, renovate. They do it out of a sound ambition, led by the sincere wish to make a go. But they also do it out of sheer necessity, because otherwise the joint could not be opened at all. It could be argued that there are in the Swiss Code of Obligations regulations pertaining to that sort of
problem. I jurist, to 253ff CO. corruption beyond the
have tried three times, as a self appointed make use in a Court of Law of the articles The show of incompetence, arrogance and produced by the public officials would reach scope of this book.
And presently Klara and I were sitting in that beautiful dining room and hesitating before the big jump. For a big jump it was: behind us an unsatisfactory activity as leaseholders of a run down joint in the Bernese Oberland. Under our feet a broad recognition of our professional merits, but also an exceedingly narrow financial basis. Ahead of us a large, attractive and many sided establishment with eight or ten employees and - so we hoped - a turnover of one million or more. Would we dare pick up the challenge? We dared. And then things went very fast. The two charming gentlemen saw to it that that the sale's contract was signed before the end of the month. At the end of June we cancelled the lease contract for the end of September. On September 15 1987 we arrived in Granges with the kids and the furniture and two cats. As of September 23 we took over de facto - so the manager could be released sooner. As of October 1, the contract was in force. Taking over a catering business, whether large or small, always brings the same problems: From the very first day, the new bosses have to set their own stamp on the business, they have to impose their own personalities although they don't actually know how the patrons will react to just those personalities. It is indeed a strange alchemy, in fact the same alchemy which takes place between two persons who just happen to meet: You greet, you shake hands and you like the person facing you - or you don't. The difference is simply that when you take over a business very large sums are at stakes. And caterers who flunk at the beginning of their activities will have to work very much harder in order to regain the missing good will and the confidence of the clientele. We had planned our coming out very carefully, We had, together with the former owner of the corporation, put an
ad in the local newspaper, an invitation to a nice evening of entertainment with music. Until 9 p.m. we had offered each and every guest a free drink. And we had complimented every one with a Fr. 10,- voucher, payable in food or drink at a later date. The purpose of the operation was to incite people to visit the place again. Otherwise lots of people come to such an inauguration, have a ball and are never seen again. This operation was financed half by us, and half by the former owner. And many, many came. One thing is certain: We have done well right from the start and continue to do well. But the effort at the beginning is immense, and impossible to over estimate For at the beginning everything - and I mean literally everything is new, and problems come like so many avalanches: How is the heating working, where is the police station, the municipal administration? Who supplies the potatoes, how is the help organized, where is the school for the kids?
to
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Which patron is a happy-go-lucky guy, which patron is a crank, how much worthless booze is there left in the cellar, why is the cooling system all the time out of order ? Problems, problems, more problems, and all these problems require instant solutions. Does the cooking have the right and proper taste, do we have the right choice of wines, and ever and ever again: How does the clientele judge me and my work? Klara is a great diplomat. She is the born hostess, smiles a lot, has a terrific memory for names - of vital importance in a German speaking area - takes care of the smallest details and makes fantastic flower arrangements. In addition a devoted mother to our two children, and to me a lover, a friend, ever true, even under the most hostile conditions, always by my side, undemanding and quiet.
Such a woman is a gift from Heaven.
(1) General Henri Guisan, Commander in Chief of the Swiss armed forces during the Second World War. A national hero.