By Alex Tilbury

Female Baby Boomers with a good supply of working capital and a coffee machine make the perfect profile of a hospitality success story.

The inaugural Hospitality Industry Success Index, developed by national equipment financier Silver Chef, found the industry was not as risky as public sentiment suggested.

It revealed more than 90 per cent of hospitality businesses succeeded in the first 12 months of operation. The key ingredient for their success was working capital.

HISI data also showed businesses with less than two years trading history were more successful than those with two to four years experience, while small businesses struggled against well backed franchises.

Coffee machines were the most successful hospitality asset, confirming the popularity of coffee in Australia.

The so-called slacker generation (Gen X) has grown up and is strongly competing with Baby Boomers, who are the most successful in the hospitality stakes; and women win the hospitality gender war, recording a higher business success rate than men.

Silver Chef chief executive officer Charles Gregory said his company had helped thousands of businesses in the past 24 years get their start through its rent-try-buy financing model.

"We have delivered more than $100 million of Silver Chef equipment to the hospitality sector from the  
corner cafe to five star restaurants," he said.

Hospitality entrepreneur and director of Vapiano Australia, Will Cooke, said the core findings of the HISI report mirrored his observations gathered during 25 years industry experience in Australia, Europe and the UK.

"I don’t fit the typical mould of what the HISI report has revealed but I believe there are certain ingredients that can help build a successful hospitality business," he said.

Mr Gregory said the HISI report would become an annual feature. The findings were based on data gathered across more than 3000 contracts and 2012 customers over a 12-month period from 2008.

Angela Vithoulkas is making a success of her Vivo Cafe in the Sydney CBD. Picture: Adam Ward.

Article from The Daily Telegraph, August 4, 2010.