If You Run an F&B Business in the UAE, the Next Few Months Will Reward Discipline Over Ambition

Date Posted:Fri, 17th Apr 2026

If You Run an F&B Business in the UAE, the Next Few Months Will Reward Discipline Over Ambition

Right now, every F&B operator I speak to in the UAE is dealing with the same three things at once. Costs that keep climbing. Customers who are spending more carefully. And competition that is fierce, with many offering discounts.

 

This is one of the toughest sectors in the country. Margins are thin at the best of times. Rent, payroll, visas, DEWA, gratuity, delivery commissions. By the time you have paid for everything that has to be paid, there is not much left. And when discretionary spending tightens, dining out is one of the first things people pull back on. There are some telling me from the fast casual space that business is down by 25% and in fine dining it is down even further. 

Here is what I would say to any F&B founder right now.

Know your numbers daily, not monthly. Most operators only look at their P&L once the books are closed, weeks after the month ends. By then, three or four weak weeks have already passed and the cash is gone. A simple daily view of covers, average ticket, food cost percentage and labour as a percentage of sales is enough to spot trouble before it becomes terminal. You do not need a fancy system. You need the discipline to look every morning.

Be honest about your real labour cost. Salary is only part of the story. Add visas, accommodation if you provide it, gratuity, transport, training and the cost of turnover. The real number is often 25 to 35 percent higher than what is on the payslip. Then run your roster against actual covers, not against a forecast you set six months ago in better conditions.

Look hard at your delivery mix. Aggregator commissions can run from 25 to 35 percent of order value. If your dine in margin is 15 percent, every delivery order through an app may be losing you money. That does not mean walk away from delivery. It means know which channels actually contribute to profit, and which ones are just keeping the lights on.

Defer what you can. Protect what you cannot. This is not the time to sign a five year lease without a break clause, or commit to a second site because the first one had a strong quarter. It is the time to renegotiate where you have leverage and make sure your existing operation is genuinely profitable before you scale anything.

And do not panic. The UAE has been through harder periods than this and come out stronger every single time. The operators who survived COVID, the regional shocks before that, and every other downturn were those who kept their heads down, watched their cash, and were ready to move when things turned. They always do turn. History tells us that. 

The discipline you build right now is what makes you stronger when conditions improve. Get the data flowing daily. Get your cost base honest. Make decisions on what the numbers tell you, not on what last quarter felt like.

That is what separates the F&B operators who are still here in two years from the ones who are not.

For further information or any questions, please contact Zaid Aboobaker at [email protected].

Author Bio:

Zaid Aboobaker is Co-Founder and CEO of CompassPoint Consulting, a UAE-based fractional CFO and strategic finance advisory firm. CompassPoint combines senior CFO expertise with technology-enabled reporting to help founders and leadership teams across the GCC and UK build financial clarity, stronger controls and the discipline to grow well.