Selling to restaurants and bars in Spain: buyers, hours and rules

Spain has one of the densest hospitality networks in Europe. Using the INE's Central Business Directory (DIRCE), Mercasa, the state-owned food distribution company, counts 266,837 food and drink service premises in 2024, run by 233,543 businesses. For a foreign supplier of coffee, wine, kitchen equipment or software, that is a huge market with almost no central buyer.

The shape of the market

Segment	Businesses	Premises
Drinking establishments (bars, cafés)	148,106	163,890
Restaurants and food stalls	70,997	83,714
Catering and other food services	14,440	19,233

The two columns are almost the same: most Spanish hospitality businesses have a single site. Restaurant groups and franchise chains exist and grow every year, but the bulk of the market is the neighbourhood bar, the industrial-estate café serving breakfasts to van drivers and the family restaurant with a fixed-price lunch menu (menú del día). Many are run by a self-employed owner (autónomo). Figures move every year with openings and closures, so check the DIRCE tables on the INE website if you need the current count.

Spanish hours change everything

The single biggest mistake foreign sales teams make is calling at the wrong time. Spanish service hours are late:

Time	What is happening	Call?
7:30-10:30	Breakfasts, supplier deliveries	No
10:30-12:00	Coffee rush over, kitchen prepping	Yes
13:00-16:30	Lunch service	Never
16:30-19:00	Cleaning up, ordering, a quiet spell	Yes
From 20:30	Dinner and drinks	No

Avoid Fridays, weekends and bank holiday bridges (puentes). Most independent places close one weekday; find out which. November and December are the season for office Christmas lunches, so owners are busy and cautious with money. January, once the holidays are over, is often a better month to start a conversation.

Call in Spanish. English may work with a restaurant group's head office in Madrid or Barcelona; it rarely works with a bar owner in Valladolid holding a tray. Our cold call script for Spain has openings you can adapt.

Who decides

• Small bar or café: the owner, usually behind the counter. No gatekeeper, but no spare time either.
• Independent restaurant: the owner signs off on anything big (refit, POS, insurance, energy). The head chef has a strong say on produce, kitchen equipment and tableware.
• Group or chain: a manager or purchasing team at head office. Here email after a first call works, and decisions follow budget cycles.

Drinks are a special case. Spanish brewers often supply kegs, taps and sometimes terrace furniture under supply agreements, and bars buy most food and drink through local distributors they have used for years. If you sell a beverage or food brand, a Spanish distributor or agent will usually open more doors than direct calls.

What they buy from outside suppliers

Need	Typical offers
Taking payments	POS and handheld ordering, reservations, stock and recipe costing
Being found	Google listing, website with menu, food photography, social media
Compliance	Allergen menus, food safety (HACCP) plans, pest control, data protection
Equipment	Coffee machines, cold rooms, extraction, dishwashers, often on renting
Lower costs	Energy, LED lighting, waste and used-oil collection
Staff	Uniforms, food handler training, recruitment

Rules that make good sales arguments

Allergens. Restaurants must tell customers about allergens in dishes that are not prepacked, under EU Regulation 1169/2011, applied in Spain by Royal Decree 126/2015. Software that builds an allergen sheet from each recipe solves a daily problem for places that change their menu every day.

Free tap water. Law 7/2022 on waste (article 18.3) requires hospitality businesses to always offer customers non-bottled water free of charge. Filtration systems, branded jugs and water fountains have a legal hook. Do not overstate it: selling bottled water is still allowed.

Payment terms. Spanish B2B payment terms are capped at 60 days by Law 3/2004 on late payment. Hospitality has a high turnover of businesses, so for equipment or first orders, a deposit or payment on delivery is sensible. Our guide to credit-checking a Spanish customer explains what to look at.

Calling legally

Many bar and restaurant owners are sole traders, which means Spanish data protection rules apply in full:

• You need a legal basis, usually legitimate interest, and an offer related to their business.
• Screen sole traders against the Robinson opt-out list before calling.
• Say who you are and why you are calling, and record anyone who asks not to be contacted again.
• Unsolicited marketing email and WhatsApp messages are banned under the LSSI, also to companies.

More in Is cold calling legal in Spain? and Cold email in Spain and the LSSI.

Building your list

Search by activity (restaurants, bars and cafés) and by province or postcode, and keep records with a mobile number. In our directory, 68.2% of businesses have 0 to 2 employees and 92.9% of phone numbers are mobiles: in hospitality, that mobile is usually the owner's. Segmenting by headcount separates the family bar from the restaurant with fifteen staff, which buys differently. The B2B sales use case shows how to turn the list into a calling plan, and if you sell servicing, see maintenance contracts with Spanish companies.