La Place on course for expansion

The Dutch restaurant chain La Place intends to stand itself out from its competitors with the concept of absolute freshness at a moderate price.

+P izzas are rolled out and topped in front of customers, meat for burgers freshly fried, juice freshly pressed and baked products made up from fresh dough and baked on the spot. The Dutch restaurant chain La Place pursues this quite labor-intensive concept consistently and entirely successfully. The company, which also operates self-service restaurants at motorway service areas, airports and rail stations, uses it to compete against various burger and fast food chains. Explaining the idea, Manager Paul Tönis told our Editor: “We intend to stand out from our competitors with the concept of absolute freshness at a moderate price.” La Place’s branches have a modular structural design ranging from 50 m2 (Express Shops) to restaurants with an area of 5,000 m 2. Kitchens and preparation stations are always open-fronted. Customers can watch sandwich toppings being cut and baked products topped, for example, and ready-topped baked goods are always available to take away. Dough for breads and rolls is supplied by local bakeries, then made-up and baked by La Place staff. All in gredients are expected to be fresh and natural – in other words additive-free. Paul Tönis explains: “We also prefer regional raw materials, organic quality if possible.”

Depending on the size of the outlet, the selection of goods can include the following product groups: pies, homemade soups, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, juices and smoothies, desserts, homemade pasta, grilled dishes, breakfast products, oriental cuisine and salads. Menus and product ranges change weekly. La Place has a total of around 3,500 different recipes. Four product development staff are responsible for the product diversity.

Food prices are moderate: A lavishly topped cheeseburger costs EUR 6.95 in Dutch branches and EUR 4.95 as a special offer. An over-the-counter topped focaccia is EUR 5, which is the same cost as a topped baguette. A freshly prepared pizza (28 cm diameter) starts at EUR 5.50 and ends (four different toppings) at EUR 10.50. Desserts and small tartlets cost EUR 3.

La Place, which has been a subsidiary of the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo since 2016, operates most of the branches, approx. 130, in the Netherlands and employs a workforce of around 3,000. It also has restaurants in Spain, France, Germany (Zweibrücken and Montabauer), Switzerland, Belgium, the USA and England, as well as in the Middle East and Indonesia. There are also franchise partners in addition to its own restaurants, and the company plans to expand worldwide and to open other locations. Explaining the successful concept, Manager Tönis says: “It is important that staff bring with them a corresponding amount of passion and enthusiasm, because preparing fresh foods requires intensive training. However, if the employees have prepared the baked products themselves for example, they also feel responsible for the product and can sell it correspondingly well.” +++