Alcoholic beverage and food service licence

General

A business wishing to sell or serve alcohol requires an Alcoholic beverage and food service licence. You request this from the municipality. You are granted the licence if you meet certain requirements.

Requirements that you must meet

  • You are the manager and you are older than 21 years of age.
  • You must be of good moral character. More information about the requirement of morality can be found on the Central Government website (Dutch).
  • You must include your social hygiene diploma.
  • You are registered with the Chamber of Commerce.
  • Your facilities (surface area, height, toilet requirement, ventilation) must meet the legal requirements (Dutch).
  • If you request the licence for a canteen, association or foundation, you must have administrative regulations.
  • If you request the licence for a canteen or sports centre canteen, your bar volunteers will have undergone Responsible (Alcoholic) Beverage Service (RBS) training. On the website of the NOCNSF (the Dutch Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation) you will find more information about RBS training (Dutch).  

An investigation under the Public Administration (Probity Screen) Act (BIBOB) can be carried out at your request.

What you need to know

Alcoholic beverage and food service licence required

An Alcoholic beverage and food service licence is required when

  • You wish to start or take over a canteen, café, restaurant, staff restaurant or off-license.
  • You make structural changes to the facilities of an existing food service business.
  • The business structure changes, for example, from a sole proprietorship to a private limited company.

Alcoholic beverage and food service licence not required

An Alcoholic beverage and food service licence is not required for the food service sector where no alcohol is served. In certain streets in Breda an Operating licence is required.

Add or change manager

You can add or change the managers in your existing licence. You can read more about this on the page Change manager in your licence.

Processing time      

If the request is complete, the municipality will deal with the request within 8 weeks. This period can be extended by 8 (or more) weeks.

Costs

It costs € 564,94 to request an Alcoholic Beverage and Food Service licence.