2024-02-01 00:43:01
The Belval district has had a new restaurant for several days. Located near the Blast Furnaces, in place of the defunct Beeftro, which disappeared last fall, The ASH has been welcoming customers since January 19 wanting to share a drink over shared dishes, burgers or beautiful pieces of meat.
This is the very first foreign establishment of this brand, which has 13 addresses on German territory and which aims to open half a dozen other openings in the coming months, still in Germany. Behind The ASH is the Apeiron group, the baby of entrepreneur Kent Hahne, who has made a specialty of creating or amplifying success-stories in the hospitality industry. It was he, the former McDonald’s franchisee, who, with several associates, imagined and made Vapiano a globally recognized brand in the 2000s and 2010s, before selling his shares (Vapiano has since collapsed) and stealing his own wings with his own projects within his own group, Apeiron Restaurant & Retail Management gmbh.
Read also:
The Manso group closes Casa España, but will open Il Tocco
Apeiron is therefore The ASH and a first Luxembourg restaurant in Esch-Belval: 96 seats in the dining room and a terrace which can accommodate around a hundred guests. Its CEO initially had the ambition to establish this bistro in the capital, but was seduced by the potential of the Eschois district, the proximity of the Rockhal and the university center, as well as the upcoming development around the Square Mile.
Luxembourg is a very interesting country. Its proximity to Germany makes it the ideal place for our first international steps.
Kent Hahne
founder of the Apeiron group
However, The ASH is still prospecting in Luxembourg City for a second opening. “You will perhaps have news on this subject during the second half of 2024,” says Jean-Marie In, retail specialist at INOWAI, which acts as an intermediary between owners and merchants. In the Grand Duchy, Kent Hahne knows how to count on the latter’s expertise to find emblematic crossing points, ideal for anchoring his various concepts locally.
Read also:
Starbucks opened at Royal-Hamilius, other openings planned in 2024
“We look forward to this new challenge and significant step that this restaurant represents for our expansion. This will be the start of a very exciting journey,” said Mr. Hahne, who foreshadows ambitions already materialized in recent months with the opening of two L’Osteria restaurants.
Three openings in six months
Four years after establishing itself in Kirchberg in the brand new Infinity complex, near the European institutions, L’Osteria, this concept with Italian cuisine which is reminiscent of Vapiano, pasta and pizza, has taken its place in Grand Duchy with two new addresses inaugurated in a few months in 2023.
On July 24, the one at No. 12 Avenue du Rock’n Roll in Belval opened. On November 28, that of No. 132 route from Bascharage to Differdange (Niederkorn) opened. The two sites were occupied until a few months ago by the local restaurant chain serving Italian cuisine Dimmi Si. Each closed before the takeover of the premises by the Apeiron group, which suddenly went from one to four locations in Luxembourg.
The Osteria opened at the foot of the Ibis hotel, near the Möllerei and the Avenue du Rock’n Roll. © PHOTO: Christophe Lemaire
Unlike The ASH, for which it is a franchiser, Apeiron acts as a franchisee with L’Osteria. With 26 restaurants under management, it is even the main partner of FR L’Osteria SE, the company behind the concept launched 25 years ago by two future partners of Kent Hahne in the Vapiano adventure. As reported last year by the economic journal Handelsblattthe latter sold the majority shareholding of L’Osteria to the McWin fund, valued at some 400 million euros.
Read also:
Apeiron expands to Luxembourg with restaurants L’Osteria and The ASH
McWin, very clearly supported by ADIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, directly or indirectly controls a portfolio of more than 1,500 catering outlets in Europe, with powerful brands at the local level such as GAIL’s bakeries, Burger King in Poland and in Germany, the vegetarian and vegan brand dean&david, the Italian trattoria Big Mamma, the fried chicken specialist Popeyes… and what remains of Vapiano.
The catering industry is booming in Belval
If the Luxembourg market still remains foreign to these negotiations and to McWin’s stated leadership ambitions for L’Osteria, the hospitality industry is experiencing a real boom in the Grand Duchy. As CBRE highlighted in its 2023 market study, the country is increasingly attractive for large brands. A striking contrast with the difficulties encountered by local restaurateurs, as illustrated, for example, by the bankruptcy of La Table du Pain in the capital at the start of the year.
Read also:
New brands are coming soon to Belval Plaza
In Belval, recent or upcoming openings in no way contradict this observation of radiant attractiveness. Next fall, Firce Capital, designated master franchisee of KFC in Luxembourg, will open a first restaurant of the brand at Belval Plaza, kicking off much higher ambitions for the shopping center (which should inaugurate its food hall of 2,500 m2 this year) and for the fast food chain on a national level (10 addresses by 2028).
The location of the future food hall in the heart of Belval Plaza has been under construction for several months. © PHOTO: Christophe Lemaire
On Avenue du Swing, in the continuity of Avenue du Rock’n Roll, the dynamism is concrete with the successive openings of Jolt Coffee Roasters (roaster at n°3-5) and Fire (ramen restaurant at n°7), last November.
The neighboring university center is not left out. The Italian MyCaffé and the Luxembourger Melting – on the Terrasse des Hauts-Fourneaux – have thus strengthened the local offer in recent months. Things are also moving at Porte de France with the very recent establishment of brands O’Tacos et Pokawa on the ground floor of the new national headquarters of the Société Générale bank, which adjoins the emblematic Terres Rouges office complex.
The third O’Tacos and the fourth Pokawa in Luxembourg opened their doors in September 2023. © PHOTO: Christophe Lemaire
Just opposite this building, the new district of Belval, the Square Mile, will rise in a few years. An imposing living space on former industrial wastelands long converted into parking lots, which will mix residential buildings and office buildings, like the recently unveiled Kyklos project. Constructions which should all accommodate commercial spaces at their foot. So many new development prospects for the hospitality industry in Esch-Belval.
1706775169
#German #chain #ASH #arrives #Luxembourg #restaurant