Chain restaurants in Italy reach €9bn but struggle to keep staff

Chain restaurants in Italy now generate about €9 billion a year, 11% of the country's food service revenue, according to a Deloitte study presented in Milan on 23 October at Aigrim Day 2026. The companies behind them say their real constraint is keeping the young people they hire.

Aigrim, the Fipe-Confcommercio association of large multi-site restaurant and catering companies, uses its annual forum to put its case to government. This year's theme was the value of work. Agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida opened the day, followed by Fipe president Lino Enrico Stoppani and INPS president Gabriele Fava, with executives from KFC Italia, McDonald's Italia and Cigierre on the panel.

The backdrop is a tight labour market: the latest Excelsior survey showed hospitality hiring in Italy leading October job demand, while foreign brands keep arriving, as with Hesburger's first Italian restaurant in Matera.

Chains are growing far faster than Italy's independents, yet their rotas still depend on students who leave.

Chain restaurants in Italy outgrow independents

Tommaso Nastasi, head of Deloitte's Value Creation Service, put the Italian food service market at €84 billion, up 1% in 2025 and now in what he described as a phase of stabilisation. Organised chains run only 3-4% of the roughly 260,000 active outlets, yet take 11% of total value.

The difference lies in the growth rate. Between 2019 and 2025, chain revenue rose 7.2%, against 0.6% for independent operators, according to Deloitte. In a market long dominated by family-run trattorias and bars, that is a slow but measurable shift towards brands with central purchasing and standard menus.

A young, part-time workforce

Luciano Sbraga, director of Fipe's research office, presented the staffing picture. Food service employs a record 1.5 million people, up 6.4% on 2024, of whom about 1.2 million are employees. Four in ten workers are under 30, 29.2% are foreign nationals and 58.5% work part-time. Hourly productivity stands at €19.10, half the national average of €37.90.

"Staff shortages are no longer a temporary phenomenon but a structural issue," said Riccardo Orlandi, president of Aigrim-Fipe. Technology and artificial intelligence do not take jobs away, he added, but the real challenge is retaining young people who pay ever more attention to the balance between private life, work and free time.

The pressure point is the rota. Chains trade on weekend peaks and long opening hours, often every day of the year; giving staff more weekends off means hiring more people, and candidates are scarce, Orlandi said. Many recruits are students who work while they study and leave within months.

The association's request to Rome is about cost: lower labour charges for employers and tax relief on some items of the national contract, which is up for renewal. Those renewal talks will show how much of the request survives.