Available for on-the-record commentary on European restaurant chains and the capital behind them.
Krause Hospitality Advisory provides named, attributable commentary to journalists, editors, and analysts covering DACH and Western European hospitality. The frameworks are public; the firm is independent; the source is on the record.
What we will speak to — and where the underlying analysis already lives.
Each cluster below is anchored to a piece in the public record. A reporter on deadline can lift commentary directly, or work the underlying framework into a longer piece without going through us.
- Why a foreign chain's DACH unit economics rarely match the US base case.
- Tarifrecht and how NGG/DEHOGA collective agreements set the labor floor.
- The 7%/19% MwSt fork between take-away/delivery and dine-in, and why it bends concept design.
- Austria's Registrierkassensicherheitsverordnung — POS retrofit timelines for foreign entrants.
- Swiss franchise contract law in the absence of a specific statute.
- How a mid-sized chain reads its own exit window — premium, standard, watch, or risk.
- Why operator-side readiness (ORS) and market-side timing (MTS) almost never converge.
- What the Vapiano 2019–2020 trajectory teaches about MTS misreads.
- How a board, a CFO, and a deal team should be reading a brand valuation differently.
- The Red Lobster autopsy — what actually broke and what was inherited.
- Roll-ups in casual dining: where the model holds and where it fractures.
- What a sponsor reads in the first ninety days of a chain investment.
- Where the PE playbook for restaurants diverges from the SaaS playbook it borrows from.
- Why Five Guys contracted from eleven units to six in Germany.
- What KFC's franchise-DNA signal says about market readiness in DACH.
- Why US chains keep mispricing European capital.
- What UK casual-dining failures import — and what they don't — when they cross the Channel.
- Why hospitality forecasting models broke between 2022 and 2026.
- How price–experience–context misalignment shows up before revenue does.
- Why the 4.5-star threshold has become a structural cost line, not a marketing line.
Michael Krause — Founder, Krause Hospitality Advisory.
Founder, Krause Hospitality Advisory — independent strategy advisory to restaurant chains, foodservice investors, and franchise systems in DACH and Western Europe.
Diplom-Ökonom (University of Hohenheim). Restaurant marketing advisor since 2001. Operator-grounded through partner-publication GastroInsider, which has tracked the DACH foodservice operator base for 25+ years.
HERI-40 (Hospitality Equity Readiness Index), the Operational Readiness Score (ORS), and the Market Timing Score (MTS) — documented end-to-end in the public record at /methodology and in the Insights archive.
No operator stake. No carry, no equity. No vendor commissions. No dual sourcing. Commentary is on-the-record, attributable, and not contingent on any commercial relationship with the subject of the story.
Preferred byline: Michael Krause, Founder, Krause Hospitality Advisory. Short form: Michael Krause, Krause Hospitality Advisory.
Four standards — to keep the brief workable on a deadline.
Commentary is attributable to Michael Krause, Founder, Krause Hospitality Advisory — unless the brief is explicitly framed otherwise.
Initial response on weekdays during European business hours. Same-day response when the deadline is documented in the request.
Quotes via email, structured written commentary on a defined question, or a recorded call when the format demands it. Phone background context on request.
Every framework cited in commentary is documented in the public record. A reporter, a desk editor, or a fact-checker can audit the underlying logic without going through us.
On deadline? Send the question, the angle, and the cut-off — we will reply within one business day.
Use the briefing form. Mark the request as press in the first line. Include the outlet, the deadline, and whether you need a written quote, a written commentary, or a recorded call.
Request commentary