restaurateurs struggle to repay secured loans

On the banks of the Seine in Louveciennes (Yvelines), the terrace of a restaurant was full all summer, with 200 covers per day. Behind the scenes, the tension is high for the boss and his thirty employees. “We are really a seasonal establishment, so it is now that we make the figure for the start of the school year [et] it’s what’s going to happen this winter that worries us a little bit”, says David Cheleman. He must repay 140,000 euros of loan guaranteed by the State, in six years. And this, while inflation has caused its costs to soar.

“It’s getting very complicated. We’re very worried about the shape of our balance sheet at the end of the year. We’ll realize that even by managing well, we’ll be working for zero”, continues the restaurateur. According to the main employers’ union in the sector, a quarter of companies will not be able to repay their loan. “We ask that we spend ten years”, says Frank Delvau, president of the UMIH of Île-de-France. An essential deadline for Thomas Vidal, restaurateur in Limoges (Haute-Vienne). It opened just before confinement, and had to take a state-guaranteed loan in addition to its loan. For him, the monthly payments are now too heavy.