INSIGHT - The business model of "night stores" is faltering in Belgium. With a low penetration rate, a popular image of being "more expensive than practical", and consumers demanding a more sophisticated offering, this convenience store must reinvent itself, like structured chains such as Night & Day.

Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET), maison mère de la plateforme de livraison en Belgique, a annoncé une transition majeure : son fondateur et CEO historique, Jitse Groen, quitte la direction de l’entreprise qu’il a créée en 2000. Derrière l’annonce officielle, une réalité s’impose : Prosus, désormais propriétaire, place ses hommes aux commandes et impose sa stratégie, précipitant de facto la sortie du fondateur.

Faced with the government's admission of unpreparedness regarding its own tax shift, the president of the Walloon Horeca Federation insists that the VAT "shock" is as worrying as "the lack of structure, clarity and dialogue".

Steering blindly at the federal level: in the middle of a parliamentary debate, the Finance Minister admitted he did not yet grasp the real scope of his own tax reform. Asked about the precise impact of raising VAT to 12% for school canteens and nursing homes, the governing majority had to concede there is a total legal vacuum, even indicating it was open to drafting the necessary legal provisions based on… the opposition’s advice.

The federal government hasn't yet proposed any specific terms. It's therefore difficult to estimate the precise impact on consumption of the VAT shifts decided upon in the budget agreement. Every food service provider has reached for their calculators to answer at least one question: what does this mean for profitability?

During the plenary session dedicated to the government's statement, Arizona's consumption tax reform became a focal point of tension. While the federal government defended the reform as a way to rebalance the budget and reduce the tax burden on labor, the congressional opposition denounced it as leading to a surge in everyday prices, from a cone of fries to a hotel room.