Luxembourg gastronomy sector keeps growing

(CS) Luxembourg's hotel, restaurant and café sector (Horesca) has kept on growing despite difficult economic times, creating 800 jobs since the start of the year and a turnover of around two billion euros.

The Horesca sector counts some 2,845 businesses and provides work for around 19,000 people, with 800 jobs created since January 1 this year. Including indirect employees, who work in services directly associated with Horesca, the employment number climbs to 33,000 people, around 8.8 percent of the Grand Duchy's entire workforce.

In the European Union as a whole, there are 1.8 million businesses working in the Horesca sector, of which 99 percent are small or medium sized enterprises. The industry provided 10.2 million jobs in the EU and together with tourism forms one of the most important sectors of the European economy.

These numbers were presented on Tuesday by Ernst & Young and are the result of a study into the contribution of Horesca and brewery businesses on the economy in Luxembourg and Europe.

58.6 million pints of beer produced annually in Luxembourg

While Horesca is a sector going strong, the brewery business appears to be in crisis since 2008, according to Ernst & Young. However, Luxembourg has managed to buck the European trend, thanks mostly to its exporting efforts.

The Grand Duchy counts seven breweries, of which six are family businesses, and that together produce 293,000 hectolitres of beer (around 58.6 million pints) per year, employing some 360 people.

Around 40 million euros has been invested in the sector in Luxembourg since 2000.

In the EU28 meanwhile there are some 4,000 breweries, directly or indirectly employing more than two million people.

Across Europe, around 360 million hectolitres of beer are consumed a year, Ernst & Young found.

Reporting by Gérard Karas