Hospitality operators across the UK and Europe face significant cost challenges. Food inflation is inconsistent, labour pressures continue to rise and operational inefficiencies have become increasingly expensive.
Successful operators in 2025 share one characteristic, which is the adoption of AI assisted inventory systems that provide accurate and real time data.
Opening a restaurant in the UK or Europe in 2025 requires a more disciplined operational approach than ever before. Costs are rising, customer expectations continue to grow, and early operational issues can damage profitability before an operator has the chance to stabilise.
What separates high performing openings from struggling ones is not branding, menu design, or marketing.
It is inventory readiness before the first service begins.
Across the GCC, cloud kitchens have become one of the fastest-growing formats in the foodservice sector. Dubai, Riyadh, Doha, and Muscat have all witnessed rapid expansion of delivery-first brands, fuelled by dense urban populations, high delivery adoption, and ambitious venture-backed rollouts. Yet behind this growth lies a persistent challenge. While some cloud kitchen brands scale seamlessly across multiple countries, others struggle to replicate success beyond two or three locations.
Every holiday season, hospitality operators brace for the same operational storm — soaring demand, supplier fluctuations, and tight profit margins. The busiest period of the year often becomes the riskiest one, where even minor inventory errors snowball into lost revenue and wasted stock.
