LinkedIn·Monday, 24 August 2026·1d ago

Last year 300.000 people ate at Amadeus. I was four of them. Marc Coucke's Alychlo has just taken a majority stake in the iconic ribs chain…

Martin Vander Ghinste

Co-founder Feedelity | AI-native Guest Feedback Management for QSR 🍔🍴🚀

Last year 300.000 people ate at Amadeus. I was four of them. Marc Coucke's Alychlo has just taken a majority stake in the iconic ribs chain we all love, led by Marie Thevelin. Five restaurants, €10m turnover, €3,5m EBITDA. That's a 35% margin. To give you an idea, the listed and PE-backed groups filing accounts in Uk & Europe this month are printing four to five percent. Here's what I keep thinking about. Amadeus sells (mostly) one dish at a fixed price, the ribbetjes à volonté for €25. An average spend of roughly €30-35 a head. There is little upsell, no premium tier, no seasonal menu, no margin to be engineered out of the food cost. What's left doing the heavy lifting is how many people walk in, and how often they come back. Most operators treat the guest experience and return rate as a marketing metric. For a concept like this, it isn't a metric. It's the model. The target for next year is 400.000 visitors. One new site in Bruges gets them part of the way. The rest has to come from people already in the database, deciding to make it five visits instead of four.