Chairman of the Management Board & CEO, DO & CO Aktiengesellschaft
Fellner! LIVE: Interview with Attila Dogudan
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About Attila Dogudan
Attila Dogudan, chairman and CEO of Do Aktiengesellschaft, has been interviewed on Austrian media regarding the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on his businesses. In February 2021, he expressed disappointment that restaurants would remain closed until after Easter, stating he had expected the decision but hoped for outdoor dining to be permitted. He said that without revenue, many businesses would struggle to survive, and he called for faster, more direct financial aid and a reduction in non-wage labor costs. In April 2021, he confirmed his restaurants would reopen on May 19 if allowed, noting that reservations were already filling up. He also mentioned that his event catering operations were resuming, including a 10-day event in Madrid with 2,000 guests per day. During the Euro 2020 football championship in June 2021, Dogudan, whose company provided catering at Wembley Stadium, described the atmosphere as "diametrically opposed" — with rising COVID-19 case numbers causing concern while fans in the stadium celebrated. He expressed pride in being an Austrian service provider at Wembley and hoped for an Austrian victory against Italy. In a 2013 interview, Dogudan discussed his career trajectory, including how he secured a contract with Formula One after being asked if he could deliver catering in 10 days, and stated that success is not about money but about belief, vision, and hard work.
Transcript (26 segments)
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Host0:01
What is far in Austria, the poem of the lowlands, China, biased reality. Yes, we are now coming from the Ministers of Education, the opening of schools, to the big press conference and explanation of the Chancellor and the government from this afternoon. There, tens of thousands of restaurateurs had hoped that gastronomy could open on March 1st, at the latest on March 15th. The Schweizerhaus had already announced its opening for March 15th, but first it comes differently, second than one thinks. Gastronomy remains closed until Easter and will only open after Easter. And now we have connected to us, the most famous restaurateur in the country, Attila Dogudan. Good evening, Attila, still connected from the office, so late shift. Attila, Attila, worries, how did you experience this announcement from the government? Very disappointed?
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Attila Dogudan1:06
Well, finally you can't say I expected it, although we had hoped that at least sidewalk cafes could open in the open, but I believe the numbers, as they are now, with over 100 insolvencies, then I think one can't expect and hope anything else, because otherwise everything will get better.
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Host1:26
Attila, a bit disappointed? It also hurts a lot that you can't open for another month. So it's a total of four months, that's already a really long time, and in truth we have often had a year the whole time, and that is very challenging. And as long as you know what's happening, okay, if the state closes for these reasons, then one should actually help gastronomy so that they survive. You were a representative of the sidewalk cafe solution, you said, let's at least open the sidewalk cafes so that we can serve our guests outdoors, where the risk of infection is known to be very low, exactly.
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Attila Dogudan2:12
Exactly, so I am convinced that all outdoor areas really work, and only the color stands there, especially since the staff is tested everywhere, and I believe that it would be a compromise for both the population and gastronomy that would have brought no dangers.
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Host2:29
You are actually very constructive towards the government line, as a restaurateur. Do you understand that one says to close for another month because gastronomy is so dangerous in terms of infection, or do you say we can prove that we are not really worsening the infection numbers?
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Attila Dogudan2:54
Well, I have that very small... I only want an overall health and economic consideration, and health is undoubtedly paramount. And I believe that no one in the government, including the Chancellor, is taking it easy and just closing the shops. There are enough examples in the world where gastronomy, when open, simply becomes a problem, especially evening gastronomy. I think the problem begins when the first and second glass of wine in the evening starts. I think during the day at lunch and outside the risk is lower, but obviously they can't agree because some have too few sidewalk cafes or too small, others too many, and that's just a solution. My fear is if the numbers don't get better by Easter, then that's the real problem. To be honest, the four weeks don't really matter anymore.
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Host3:47
Attila, how is the situation with you regarding the compensation, as you would expect from the government, or is it that you want to say that unfortunately the compensation is not as you would need it?
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Attila Dogudan4:03
Well, I believe they are not coming, and I believe that not only for us, in the speed they are needed. As a corporation, we may have a small advantage because we have other financing instruments on the stock exchange and are now issuing a bond, for example, all these things. It should actually be paid out first and quickly, and then settled. I think the second consequence of whether one is entitled or not, as long as that is simply too little oxygen to fill to survive.
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Host4:38
Have you yourself received the aid for November, for example, or the compensation for December, January, February?
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Attila Dogudan4:47
We have already received parts, no question, but the clear upper limit problem that was set by the EU, and if a company is larger or within a company over the year locations are included, then there are these upper limits that are currently disadvantaging larger companies. As I said, we are getting by so-so, we will have other financing options. I only believe that it is getting extremely tight every week and even tighter, and therefore everything must close extremely quickly so that no real catastrophe occurs.
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Host5:25
Do you fear that a bit for the colleagues who are younger, who are smaller, who have the problem that they are not a corporation?
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Attila Dogudan5:33
Yes, I think everyone has different problems. We have a larger company, so we have much bigger problems, and when we are short of money, it goes into the millions. We are getting by now because we have set up a bond, a convertible bond for ourselves. If we had had the help, we would have had the same problems. I think the basic principle of paying out quickly and settling at the end of the year, as happened in America, for example, is smarter than checking whether someone is demanding 10,000 euros or 100,000 euros too much. You find that out at the end anyway.
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Host6:11
Attila, now you are a brilliant entrepreneur, as we all know, and you have landed a small, very small hit in this crisis, which is causing a huge sensation in Vienna. You are distributing Kaiser schmarrn in masses, and people are lining up from Demel to the end of the Graben, a line sometimes over 100 meters long. What is going on? How did you come up with the idea, and what is happening now? What is going on with the topic?
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Attila Dogudan6:44
Necessity is the mother of invention. When people look into an empty venue where you can't serve them, we simply decided to put two of our chefs in the display window to prepare Kaiser schmarrn, to bring a little life into it. Of course, it caught on incredibly. We have over 1000 guests per day who get Kaiser schmarrn, and for the first time in their lives, I think, the Viennese have come in such numbers to the team, because before it was always only foreign guests. But that is a small example that everyone can do something in their part, where people simply come and come with joy, because there is nothing else or very little. So there is a line of people sometimes up to 100 meters long in front of your shop, including many young people, schoolchildren, who have prepared themselves just for the afternoon. Earlier they went to a rock concert, now they go to get Kaiser schmarrn.
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Host7:43
Now I have to save on Kaiser schmarrn at the topic, and then after a long wait you are let into heaven, and security, and then you can buy Kaiser schmarrn at these two Turks in the city center Nitzl, and you even get, I think, jam on top.
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Attila Dogudan7:59
And there, when you go through the topic, from a row of cakes and pastries, that's how it works. You know, we even put up a traffic light there so that we don't have more people in the venue than planned with the 20 square meters. That means we try to adhere to all rules, and to say with an extremely big upswing, we see big flags now, where we break off every day. But it is a good example that one can do that and make people happy, and whatever is left over certainly won't save the company, but it is at least good for the soul.
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Host8:37
I just wanted to say, will you as a sole entrepreneur with two or three employees become a millionaire with the Kaiser schmarrn now? But you have to bring a huge company with, I assume, thousands of employees through this crisis, and I assume that is the greatest challenge of his life.
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Attila Dogudan8:54
Exactly, we still have 80% worldwide revenue with 8,000 employees, and it is the same worldwide on every continent. Therefore, the chance whether they now have three weeks, six weeks more or less, we have this problem and any other shop. I only know one thing: that one must give security in some way that the fixed costs are paid, that when it is closed down, which we all understand, I think, in gastronomy and hotel industry, that then all costs for which I am not responsible or which cannot be eliminated are paid by the government. I would not personally demand anything else, but that is necessary to survive.
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Host9:39
And is that the case now, Attila? Is that not the case? So it is not so. In November 80 percent, relatively generous I would say, to say it, generously, 50 percent were in December, around 30 percent in January, 15 percent in February, distributed. So it is, I think.
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Attila Dogudan10:00
I think it is important that over the entire duration of the pandemic, those industries and areas that are forcibly closed by the state are compensated in some way more, and fair means compensated quickly, not only after 1000 applications have been processed somewhere or not.
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Host10:23
You are traveling worldwide, where does it work best right now, naturally?
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Attila Dogudan10:27
Well, I can give a good example from America. In America, exactly the same thing happened in aviation as in Europe, and we received a high million amount from the American government, from the state, immediately. That was there to ensure immediate liquidity and survival. This money can only be used for wages in the future, for future employed staff. Then it is, in quotation marks, given to the company. Alternatively, one decides after the pandemic how much one has to repay and how much not, but in any case, the speed of payout is the crucial point so that companies survive. That is also clear.
Only companies create jobs, not the state. That means the state must ensure that companies survive so that after the pandemic, and also in the middle of the pandemic from autumn, I always think, jobs will be created again. Otherwise, we will have even more social problems on top, and then at some point it will become cumulatively really too much.
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Host11:33
Final question, Attila, can you hold out now until after Easter, and how long can the gastronomy industry hold out in your opinion? We are now really critical.
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Attila Dogudan11:45
I believe that if it really doesn't open after Easter and this problem continues over the summer, then only then will it really hit many, many businesses, because there is no scenario in which one can simply survive for so long without revenue. Yes, that is, I think, a real problem. I hope that the summer comes back in some way, and from autumn, hopefully with vaccinated people, we will return to a normality. We ourselves actually expect not until the last quarter and the first quarter of 2022 again something like a new normal.
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Host12:25
Thank you, Attila, it was exciting to talk to you on this day, which is not really fun for you and all restaurateurs. That was Attila Dogudan, the restaurateur who in Austria has the most understanding for this government policy. Now it will be a bit more substantial and intense, because after a short commercial break, an absolute rage will come to me in the studio. Look at that.