Peter H

Hi All

A couple of months ago I was interested in purchasing the lease of a bar in Fuengirola (The Spanish Arch). But basically things did not quite add up and I quickly dropped the idea. I would be grateful if anyone could tell me what has happened to the place now and also it's history. It would be interesting to know if it's history matches what I was told by the selling agent. This may help stop me getting my fingers burnt in the future!

Thanks

Peter

jdr

Never heard of it, where abouts out of the million bars in Fuengirola is it ?

Peter H

Calle Ollerias

Mitzyboy

Trouble is, there are all sorts of methods used by sellers and agents to sell bars, including rent a crowds. Problem is I guess, the books arent going to tell the full story

I guess your only chance is to pop to the bars regularly without telling the owners so that you can see what the turnover is really like

jdr

? tried to google the bar but got a dead website supposed to be up and running by 2008.

Mitzyboy

The bar or the staff??

jdr

Like Mitzy said, most bars and books don`t tally.
Out of all the bars very few of them survive unless the people really know the trade and are in partnership with a Spaniard that knows the in and outs of licences etc.
I know one that closed last year cos the owner put the rent up as it was hard times for him, crazy.
The bar is front row and is still empty, so he has had and probably not likely to get any income this year at all.
He would of done better just leaving the tenants as they were, at least he would of had a few bob coming in.
The only people that make money are the owners selling the leases every few months.

jdr

The bar, probably the previous, previous, previous tenants website.

sensationalfrog

the spanish arch opened a few years back,i heard good reports to begin with,noticed they spent a lot on advertising,never went myself as i never found it,when walking my dogs around the area a year ago noticed it was closed,wrong position in my opinion,if you by a bar in a seaside resort,be on the sea front,near a big hotel then you will not lose too much money,it helps rather a lot if you know what you are doing in the catering industry as well and never ever listen to what agents say
for your info,i had a very busy cafe here for 7 years,sold it 4 years ago,was a seafront one seen many come and go,these days most bars are just rent only or being bought by the spanish as price is cheap

dont buy a lease unless you know what you are doing

Peter H

Thanks for the info. I have got the impression that no one has made this bar work. Apparantly a family from England has very recently taken it over. I wish them well, I hope they have gone into it with eyes wide open and have not fallen for the agent speak, I know what **** they tell you.

larryman

The spanish arch was at one time 2 separate bars, one for food and one for drinking. These were only separated by an entrance to apartments overhead. From what i can gather it did o.k. during the boom time when it first opened, but so was everyone. Since they both closed down they were sold individually. Since then no one has made the bars work. I purchased the smaller one and have made a good success of it being rated no.1 of 202 bars/restaurants in fuengirola by customers who rated me on tripadvisor, but in the year i have what i now call ''The Oyster Bar'' but many bars in the vicinity have closed or are trying to sell up, the spanish arch being one of them which opened again in april of this year, but was on sale 3-4 months later. I think that most people don't realise that it takes an enormous amount of hours, skill, personality etc... to make a bar work in a holiday resort. I am lucky as i'm a qualified chef and ran bars for years in the canary islands, but myself and the wife work 6 days a week and approx 10-14 hours a day. A bar anywhere can work but it's not as easy as it seems. Staffing a bar will cost you 350€ per member for social security alone, terrace taxes, fines for crazy spanish laws, solicitor fees and the list goes on... to make money you need both food and drink, in this recession drink alone will not make it. Although one thing if you are thinking of a bar on the costa, fuengirola is the best area for customers and pricing as in benalmadena etc, they are at war with prices, good for customers but shite for owners, €1 a beer, €2.50 chicken & chips... crazy!!!!! rather sell myself on the streets than sell beer at that price...lol... hope that bit of info was helpful, but on a final note i would say the arch will sell for a small price as i think they want out...

jdr

Loads of Spanish bars seem to survive selling beer at a €.

steviedeluxe

I wonder how much they pay their suppliers? Besides which, isn't it the case that a lot of Spanish bars make money from their coffee sales - I may be comparing city bars incorrectly with holiday bars though.

Lawrence.Brown

OK, BEWARE...SARCASTIC COMMENT COMING!

Why not just charge 500 euros a pint? then you will only have to serve one customer a week !!!

Seriously though, I totally agree with the last poster. The spanish seem to survive ok charging decent prices. why is it that some people seem to think that they should try to try to charge as much as they can?

I personally will not spend one euro, if I think I am being overcharged.
But I will stay all night in a bar if I am getting good value for money.

Take coffee for example, I love a cafe solo, but I will only drink it at home because I refuse to pay £2+, however I will pay less than a euro all day long!

HBG

I was talking to a local commercial agent the other day and asked him how many of the local pubs were for sale. 'All of them,' he said.

And we have some real professionals operating here, along with the usual chancers. While we were talking, I watched another one being prepared for a new opening, fresh paint, a new name, fancy menus, whole page adverts in the local papers and I tried to feel sorry for the new owners, but didn't they do any research? The three bars right next to them are closed and have For Sale signs in the windows.