Re: Buying a bar
 

some one selling there bar that why and at an unreal inflat price
my loacl the beer is 1.30 for a glass beer and up the english place up the road its 2.50 euros , was up there last day and the food was bad aswell
you wont feed the dog it what i got and porchion wich was small
that why i dont go there a lot , if not at all (freinds had to go )

just looking at few price off bars on the net , ha i but lot off cars for some prices and ha rent a Crowd get the place packed where there few buyers around

1 alwas go back again day time and night time , see what the pub/bar doing where you not expacked back ,
2 book can alwas be docked to show place down well
ask for delivery dockets you see what stock there ture over
3 staff wages book will show you how many staff are working
4 all paper work with town hall
5 ask few loacls about the place

and asking price can be hight as there room to move price

Re: Buying a bar
 

Some bars work. As i've said before, we came over here very niave, not speaking spanish, and now a year and a half later we make a living. We'll never be rich but the bills are paid.
We are dearer than the spanish bars in our area, only by cents though, maybe 20 cents more for a beer, but as someone else said we have high rent and most of the spanish bars dont as they own the building.
If you are realistic, know what your doing beforehand and are prepared to work hard hard hard then i say good luck to those who try, better to have tried and failed than never tried at all!! I believe that if its something you really want to do then try it or you'll always wonder what if, just keep a bolt hole in the uk for a year so if it does turn out different than you expect then you havent burnt all your bridges.
Good luck to you x

Re: Buying a bar
 

very good point you made if never try you never know
spanish pub are small not big like the uk

Re: Buying a bar
 

The point cajam makes should not be overlooked, it is echoed by a lot of those 'place in the sun' progs.

If you listen carefully when they talk to those that have worked there and made it work, the average one, while saying it's a better quality of life or life/work balance, they all say how hard they have to work.

Re: Buying a bar
 

rember working in a big nite club years ago and we used to head to the cold room to cool down :rofl:, long hours and poor wages but was fun and njoyed it but wont go back to it again done my time in the pub/club trade
jurdy
unless i got a good pub with a good team

Re: Buying a bar
 

well mr jdr,thanks for your constructive response,i have seen it happen twice in my own bar in the early years,i have sold it now,and at least on 3 or 4 other occasions,i was only pointing out that you may have to be careful of some spanish customers who pay up front in english bars

on all of the occasions i witnessed,they were well dressed

i hope that answers my load of crap

Re: Buying a bar
 

You have to be careful of anybody, not just well dressed Spanish people if you leave your till available to access, what else they may want to steal in an English bar I don`t know.

PS, are you typing on an advent laptop ?

Re: Buying a bar
 

:lol:

In the end of the day you need experience and the ability to speak Spanish to be able to hit the road running so to speak when it comes to running a bar in Spain and a very small percentage of the Brit expatriates who do this venture don't.

The only other alternative is to have 2-3 years worth of running capital in the bank and learn as you go, but that's a hell of a lot of money to lose per year.

Having said that friends of mine moved to Ibiza about 8 years ago and had only ever worked in a bar as an bar 'person' and they have made a great success of their business and didn't speak a word of Spanish when they left for Ibiza.

Gutting really as I was asked to invest in the project and thought "not on your life!" hehe.

Re: Buying a bar
 

"The only other alternative is to have 2-3 years worth of running capital "

Dead right ,Ive only just started making money in the third year,my advise would be keep your money in your pocket and work/live here for at least a year and watch how many go bust ,if you still want a bar get yourself certified insane,:rofl:

Rgds

Rotor

Re: Buying a bar
 

Even in our tiny village, the 'Brit bar' doesn't give the tapas out that the Spanish ones do. You might get some peanuts if you're lucky.

The price and measures are the same though.

Re: Buying a bar
 

I think you hit the nail on the head first time Scampicat. A lot of Spanish run bars are not the principal business and income of the owner. Foreigners coming in and buying up the property first (or renting), then putting all business expenses down to the bar have a hard job to make the business work. In Aznalcollar village there used to be the highest number of bars per head of village population anywhere in Spain. Most were tiny converted front rooms with a chill cabinet for stock and basically would never return a proper business profit, they were part of village life as people hopped around the village meeting up with each other throughout the night.

Re: Buying a bar
 

I had a bar for a number of years, that worked well with locals, tourists and expats. The majority of the customers were locals (the previous owners were Spanish) and we were fortunate to keep them- however both myself and my friend who worked with me spoke Spanish, and we were both experienced as we had worked in bars in the town for a number of years.

There was another bar directly over the street, just five metres away, that for some reason was a big white elephant and just never worked. The owners (Spanish) tried to run it themselves for a few seasons, but eventually gave up, but since then have rented it out to the first taker. There is always someone who comes along to rent it!

They probably as much money renting it out to naive people than most bar owners make working 14 hours a day.

Every year different people take it on and leave at the end of the year dejected and broke. There have been Belgiums, Spanish (many), Germans, Argentinians and Italians- strangely enough no Brits as far as I remember!

The current people are Italian. Its a shame, it has nice decor, is a decent size and other bars in the area make a living, but this one just doesn't, regardless of who runs it. :confused:

I guess my advice is before you take anything on, find out a little bit of it's history. There is of course a chance you will make a better go of it than the previous people but some places just don't work- period.

Re: Buying a bar
 

I gotta tell you that there is a bar / restaurant about 10 mins walk from us. Its the only one around here. It was owned by French people but they couldn't make it work and they leased it to a couple of Germans.

That was about 5 months ago.

On Saturday night I went down there and there were 120 ish people at the restaurant each paying €17 for an International cuisine night.

He does special menus every month and varies it a lot, his wife is part Greek so they specialise in Greek food as well.

Both of them are really outgoing and will do absolutely anything (well, almost) to keep their customers happy.

It can work!

Re: Buying a bar
 

Yes, it is certainly true some people can make a place work where others have failed.

I gave it up about 5 years ago, I was just burnt out after 20 years of working 80 hour weeks, and quite simply just didn't enjoy it anymore.

However when I was younger I thought it a great way to make a living.

Re: Buying a bar
 

sorry dont know what an advent laptop is,i think you misunderstood me,i was not robbed it was womens(customers) handbags,as i said it was allways well dressed spanish customers in an english bar who commited the crime,i was just giving a warning out,obviously it is a minority,just be careful of people who pay up front if you own a bar as it is not the custom here unlike the uk

anyway,to get back to the thread,if you buy a bar and you have no xp then you are likely to fail,in fuengirola port you can buy a bar now for 5000 euros which people snap up,then they have to pay off the debts,get no customers and a year later are gone

its a shame but people actually for some reason believe every thing that the estate agents tell them which they,i am sure would not do in the uk