Restaurant owners slam 'biased' TV rip-off show
Sunday August 21 2005
A NUMBER of leading restaurateurs have branded consumer rights campaigner Eddie Hobbs and his latest RTE vehicle Rip Off Republic as "flawed", "biased" and "sensationalist". More than 650,000 people tuned in to watch Mr Hobbs' analysis of the cost of entertainment on last Monday's programme.
After lambasting the cost of everything from haircuts to popcorn, the man dubbed "Hype it Up Hobbs" turned on rip-off restaurateurs who, he alleges, pump up the price of a bottle of wine by an incredible 340 per cent.
He told last Monday's live audience that a winemaker could expect to get €2.05 fora bottle of Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc.
He said the bottle would cost 40¢ to transport to Ireland where €2.05 excise duty is added. The wine dealer would normally mark the price up by 30 per cent, bringing the cost of the wine to €5.85. When VAT is added, the cost of the bottle to an Irish restaurateur is €7.08.
But Irish restaurateurs were incensed when Mr Hobbs went on to allege that the same bottle of Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc is being sold in Irish restaurants for €24 - pointing out that this was a 340 per cent mark-up.
Aidan MacManus, the president of the Restaurant Association of Ireland, said: "It would be outrageous for any restaurateur to sell a bottle of wine that cost €5.85 before VAT at that price. But it is very unlikely to be happening.
"Any restaurant that would do that would be very foolish and uncompetitive.
"It is unfair to take a worst-case scenario and hang the whole country on possibly one person who is making a mockery of prices. There are international rules of costing in catering. We don't just come up with figures off the top of our heads."
Mr MacManus, chef and proprietor of the renowned King Sitric restaurant on Howth's seafront, charges €23 for a bottle of house wine. He says this price includes a mark-up of 100 per cent and, when costs and overheads are taken into account, he makes a profit of around €8 on each bottle.
He said: "We have to make a profit. It is not a dirty word, but the restaurant business is a very competitive one. You can't beat people in the doors. There are a lot of small family units and a huge number of failures. The flock wallpaper and the squeaky floorboards have gone and a certain standard is now expected. Cheap is not always what we should be aiming for."
Chef and proprietor of Chapter One in Dublin, Ross Lewis is a former Commissioner General of Euro-Toque - a pan European chef association with 7,000 members.He said: "I regularly fraternise with the principle chefs in each country and I know our mark-ups compare favourably with other countries such as France where the standard mark up at a reasonably gastronomic level is 400 per cent.
"The Rip Off Ireland hypothesis is not realistic and I don't know anyone in Ireland marking wine up by more than two to three times the cost - in the very worst-case scenario. The programme was sensationalist and took the example out of context.
"It is too easy to poke at other people's businesses and a mark-up that you perceive to be too much without going on to look at the costs."
Mr Lewis pointed out the spiralling costs of wages, insurances, utilities, rents and other necessities.
As an example he saidhis business spends €247 every month just disposing of bottles.
He said: "I don't stand over rogue operators, but most people I know mark up onlyby the margin they needto cover costs and make aliving. It is not a get rich quick industry."
RTE last night admitted the bottle of wine shown on Rip Off Republic was "a dummy", but insisted an actual bottle of Sauvignon Blanc had been traced from vineyard to table.
A spokesman said: "The mark-up was taken from a very reliable industry insider and all prices were checked and verified along the way. The source said the mark-up was 340 per cent and this was not meant to be shocking or sensational.
"The mark-up on this bottle of wine is not an isolated incident."
The Rip Off Ireland series has been the surprise summer hit in the TV schedules, and is the most watched factual programme broadcast by RTE over the past five summers.
