HOSPITALITY.digital signs acquisition for Czech start-up Restu, a successful reservation system pro-vider

Restu, founded by the Czech Venture Capital company MITON, is the leading provider of reservation services for restaurants and the largest restaurant guide in the Czech Republic. Restu offers participating restaurant owners the possibility to manage reservations through its platform. Every year, the participating restaurants handle more than 500,000 reservations via Restu.

With this acquisition, HOSPITALITY.Digital continues to pursue its strategy of supporting digital business models that allow independent restau-rateurs to improve their earnings potential with modern, digital tools.

"We support our customers, the independent restauranteurs, with digital solutions such as Restu and thereby enable them to grow further", says Olaf Koch, CEO of METRO AG. "Many restaurant owners often don't use reservation tools because this involves high costs. However, many guests are nowadays looking for restaurants online. They expect not only to find restaurants online, but also to be able to make reservations online. Here, Restu from the Czech Republic is in the lead in both respects. Since the online reservations are easy to use for the guests and just as easy to manage for the restaurant owners, we can offer our customers a clear value added".

Using the reservation tool from Restu is easy. In addition, Restu aggregates the restaurants on one platform thereby giving restaurant owners the possibility to be easily found by consumers. Restaurateurs benefit from higher reach and visibility. This platform already reaches a wide target group in the Czech Republic.

"We are happy about the further development of Restu that was founded by us and are very confident to see a prosperous development of our digital services", says Milan Zemanek, Miton Founding Partner.

"The Restu team has built a great set of reservation solutions for independent restaurants and small chains. With this deal, we are looking forward to helping our 50,000 Czech hospitality customers access Restu's solutions more easily" says Miles Graham, Operating Partner of METRO.

In addition to METRO's own reservation tools, restaurateurs now have the possibility to use another tool with other reservation functionalities that has already stood the test in practice. That way, HOSPITALITY.digital further extends its offering for independent restaurateurs.

The closing of the transaction is subject to certain conditions and is expected to take place shortly.

METRO is a leading international specialist in wholesale and food retail. The company operates in 35 countries and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2016/17, METRO generated sales of around €37 billion. The company provides custom solutions to meet the regional and international needs of its wholesale and retail customers. With its sales brands METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry and Real as well as delivery services and digitalisation initiatives METRO sets the standards for tomorrow: for customer focus, digital solutions and sustainable business models.

HOSPITALITY.digital was established in 2015 and actively contributes to the digitalisation of the hospitality sector. An international team of experts implements a variety of digital solutions and innovations for hotels, restaurants, caterers and trader businesses. To this effect, the company relies on self-developed solutions as well as on solutions from start-ups promoted in the framework of the METRO Accelerator programmes, and on solutions from other partners. These digital solutions reach small and medium-sized restaurants, hotel and catering businesses through the sales channels of the METRO/MAKRO countries. In addition, the company invests into start-ups from the fields of hospitality tech, retail tech, food tech and food innovation and monitors the trends in the hospitality industry. HOSPITALITY.digital is a wholly owned subsidiary of METRO. More information is available at hd.digital.