Also, the possibilities of mobile ordering and payment as well as the home delivery service are at the top of the list. Visitors can only find out how the company is doing, which advertises that the dishes are prepared individually and before the eyes of the guests if they click their way through several steps in the Investor Relations section.

Vapiano has just postponed the publication of its 2018 financial statements by another three weeks. Instead of this Friday as planned, the figures are now expected to be presented on May 24. The Cologne-based company is currently negotiating to refinance with the financing banks. As major shareholders Mayfair Beteiligungsfonds II GmbH & Co. KG, VAP Leipzig GmbH & Co. KG and Exchange Bio GmbH are involved.

Tchibo heir Günter Herz is behind Mayfair. It involves a total volume of around 30 million Euro, which Vapiano does not have. "The refinancing should enable a financial restructuring of the company as well as the further implementation of the strategic new accentuation", Vapiano announced. Vapiano aims to significantly reduce waiting times for guests. The processes and workflows in the restaurants are to be adapted. Vapiano intends to return to traditional Italian dishes on the menu. In the past, new dishes took longer to prepare and led to queues had caused trouble.

The aim of the restructuring is to bring the group back into the profit zone. "The parties intend to conclude the negotiations shortly," the Cologne-based company announced. However, since the conclusion of a refinancing agreement is a prerequisite for the final preparation and certification of the annual and consolidated financial statements, the financial statements will be published later. The company's Annual General Meeting will also not be held on June 5 as announced. The Company intends to announce the new date separately.

Investors naturally did not like these announcements at all: The shares were traded on Thursday morning at 5.90 Euro, three percent lower than on Tuesday. Vapiano SE has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the Prime Standard of the regulated market since June 27, 2017. At that time, the share was listed at 23 Euro.

After a brief rise to 25.20 Euro at the beginning of 2018, the share has been going downhill for some time. The company, which relocated its headquarters from Bonn to Cologne in 2017, clearly missed its targets for 2018. This was announced by the catering chain itself in February. According to preliminary figures, sales are down one percent on the previous year at around 370 million Euro. Vapiano had already lowered its forecasts for 2018 in September and again in November.

In November, the specialist for fast Italian dishes had still assumed an annual turnover of between 375 and 385 million Euro. The net loss will be significantly higher than in 2017, where the minus was 29.6 million Euro, due to unscheduled write-downs. The main reasons for this development were the unsatisfactory operating performance in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the weak performance of some newly opened restaurants.

"After a very disappointing operating business year 2018, we will use the year 2019 to create a strategic transition and significantly reduce the complexity of our business model," said Vapiano CEO Cornelius Everke in February. He has been at the helm since December 2018, after his predecessor Jochen Halfmann had to leave.

Everke wants to open fewer new restaurants in the future. The focus will be on the selection of attractive locations in major cities. He also attributes the problems to the rapid expansion. For markets outside Europe, a sale is being considered, similar to the one in the USA. The Cologne-based company sold its US subsidiaries to Plutos Sama Holding at the beginning of the year.

Everke intends to close branches at unprofitable locations. More Vapiano venues are to be operated by franchisees in the future in order to minimize the risk for the company. Overall, expansion is expected to slow down considerably. The funds released are to be invested increasingly in the company's own restaurants "in order to strengthen the guest experience in particular".

Original text: Claudia Mahnke

Translation: Mareike Graepel