Catering Trailers – 10 Reasons Why

August 12th, 2010

If you are you looking for a business to start
It is worth considering catering trailers and other forms of mobile catering.

Ask top entrepreneurs what factors make a good business – and they would probably mention most of the factors we present here for a catering trailer business.

Duncan Bannatyne cut his entrepreneurial teeth on concession catering in Jersey – and his first business when he returned to the UK was an ice cream van business.

Here are ten reasons why mobile catering could make a good business.

In no particular order:

  1. An established industry that is not a fad. Catering trailers and other forms of mobile catering has have been around for many years. Indeed, one celebrity entrepreneur started this way. People will always want food!
  2. High margin and low overheads in comparison to many other businesses. So it is not unusual (although far from guaranteed) for mobile catering businesses to pay back the capital in less than a year, and it can be much faster than that. That speed is almost unkown in franchising.
  3. You can be flexible in what you offer you are not rigidly tied into a menu or brand. You don’t carry a massive stock, if something does not sell. So If fish and chips or Indian food is not working, it is possible that sandwiches or baked potatoes will. You can chop and change menu to find out what works and differentiate your business.
  4. You are not trapped. You can also move and experiment to find the best location. If it is not working in one location you not tied to a premises lease. So you can look for a variety of other locations. This is difficult to do because of premises leases with a standard retail business. Many catering trailers, have several pitches at different times of the week and year.
  5. Comparatively low entry cost and barriers to entry generally. For sure there vital good sites to find, and licenses to obtain. it is still a relatively low investment in both time and cost
  6. It is not only about price for the customer! Many catering trailer businesses have a loyal following . It is not just a business based on price where the customers move on for a few percent cheaper, so margins are not eroded as they are in competitive niches.
  7. Relatively Low experience needed. Provide you seek guidance on the key issues and ensure you find good sites, then massive experience or knowledge is not needed.
  8. You are in charge and can work when you want.You are not tied to an office, or forced to be there for customers to ring. So you pick the location and the hours
  9. No late payment or bad debts. Customers pay in advance of the sale No danger of either waiting for payment , or customers going out of business, which is always a worry if you have to wait . It is also a cash business – which has its advantages.
  10. If all else fails, you can get out easily if it does not work. This is very important in managing risk, and certainly not true with commercial leases or many franchises contracts. So the risk is lower because of it.

That is a LOT of advantages.

BUT STOP

Before you rush out and look at catering trailers to buy. Please don’t.
Success is about planning, marketing, identifying locations and making sure you have the permits to trade.
It is not as easy as you may think. There are a LOT of traps for the unwary, and like any business it carries some risk.

The better prepared you are, the greater chance you will succeed.

So study our site! – and other publications. And discover the world of catering trailers

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Catering Trailers

March 31st, 2010

Catering Trailers – the opportunity

As you walk down the street and pass by a hot dog vendor or an ice cream van do you find yourself wishing you owned a business of that sort or wondering what it is like? Well then what’s stopping you?

Because if you are a dynamic individual with a passion for food then catering trailers could indeed prove to be a very lucrative and satisfying opportunity for you, provided you take time to understand the business, avoid the traps for the unwary – and plan properly – you really can succeed.

Indeed as far as entrepreneurships goes mobile catering prove to be one of the easier businesses to start up and involves a lower risk factor. Here are some reasons why:

1.    Mobile catering business demands a much lower investment in monetary terms when compared to the alternative options in this segment like restaurants and diners. You save on the incredible amount of money required to set up a full-fledged commercial kitchen and on the interiors of your dining area. All you need to do is purchase a trailer or van. You might be able to even do up your existing vehicle.

2.    The running costs are also much lower than for a restaurant because it eliminates over heads like rent and utility bills.

3.    The working hours are highly flexible allowing you to decide when you want to work and when you would prefer to spend quality time with your family. You could choose to run your business everyday from early morning to late in the night or might opt to just cater to special events like at the venues of concerts, exhibitions or sports events.

4.    Location is hardly a restriction in this line of work. You choose where you want to operate from and if you feel that you could do better at a different place you can just as easily pack up and leave and set up somewhere else the next day. Yes, you would need to seek the necessary permissions from the authorities especially if you plan to park along a busy street.

5.    This last factor is especially relevant considering today’s volatile economic condition. This is one those few businesses that are not effected by market variations.

The realm of possibilities for business,  that mobile catering trailers offer are endless! With the right kind of marketing and strategic planning they could expand very quickly and who knows – in a matter of years you could have a full-fledged chain in hands.

Posted in Catering Trailers | 76 Comments »

Food Trailers – Burger Vans

August 19th, 2010

The food trailers and burger van business is on the way up in Reno in the US.

Quote a recent report:

Just when you thought fast food couldn’t get any more convenient, the food truck trend is taking off. And these mobile vendors are getting even easier to track down.

“We’ve been running the mobile catering truck for about three months now,” said Mike Kavner, the general manager of Cheeseburger Island Style in Reno. “It’s a whole kitchen inside. So everything is fresh as can be.”

The crowds kept coming up to the restaurant’s food truck, which parked on the corner of Rock Boulevard and Energy Way in Reno at lunchtime.

“Why not? It’s very convenient,” said Nakia Pullen, who works in the office building next door.

This year, there are 34 mobile food trucks in Reno. In 2009, there were 24. In 2008, there were 18.

See the full Food Van Article here – Their target market is local businesses – the product burger vans and trailers serving cheeseburgers.

No business is easy, but the artice shows what is possible approaching the FOOD TRAILER or catering van business correctly.

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Burger Vans

August 18th, 2010

A focus on BURGER VANS and burger trailers.
The burger and /or chip vans are without doubt the busiest at most events and probably take at least half if not two thirds of the trade available to mobile caterers.

Location is everything for mobile catering.
More than anything else, the location of food van will determine the size of the takings. At a good location, the van will always be busy. If you are buying an existing site or van be careful – watch them trade over a period to make sure the numbers are what they claim.

Profit on burgers can be substantial
A single day a week at a good car boot sale can take £500 even £1000 pounds operating just one day a week. The profit margin is also good and can be 70% even 80% depending on offerings and prices.

Burger van and trailer licenses
Licenses need can depend on location, but certinly include food hygene certificates from the local food standards agency, and generally a street traders license too.

Concession Trailers
In addition permissions and or concessions are needed at an event. Dont pay too much for these. Only a proportion of people eat at events, and the turnout is generally lower than organisers claim. Don’t pay for concessions without a guaranteed limit on the number of catering trailer concessions.

Burger Van equipment
The essential cooking equipment needed in a burger vans or trailers is a griddle, a bain marie to keep food warm, a boiler for hot drinks and a fridge freezer is essential. Cooking with gas is the norm. Dont bring a deep fat fryer unless you are cooking chips because room is a real problem. All equipment is generally gas, so a CORGI qualified fitter is needed to install or replace it.

Storage
Storage is a key in a burger van or burger trailer at a busy event. Soft drinks and hundreds of rolls and burgers take a lot of room.
So do replacement gas bottles and water containers.

General equipment
General equipment in a catering trailer must include safety equipment such as first aid, a fire extinguisher, and a fire blanket if a fryer is used. Make sure the spare tyre is good too.

Burger vans A summary
Just to repeat location is everything with burger vans, and be careful buying second hand trailers or equimpment, it can be an expensive and unreliable mistake. A faulty griddle not only costs to replace, but the entire income from the event

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Catering Trailer Manufacturers

August 11th, 2010

I am endeaveouring to put together a list of catering trailer manufacturers, in order to create a single post resume for each of them – what sectors they cover – unique selling points and so on.

For the present here is embryo of a list I have found. I will adapt this post as more come to light.

-Ajc catering trailers

-Able catering trailers

-Bingham catering trailers

-Excel catering trailers

-Smscatering trailers

-Tcm trailers

-Towability catering trailers

-Towmasteruk catering trailers

-Tudor catering trailers

-4sure catering trailers

There are certainly more – as I write I can see a couple of ommissions.
If any manufacturer is missing, then please contact me , and I will add you to the list – better still , give me a 300 word (factual not spammy) post explaining how you fit into the sector.

The quid pro quo of appearing on my site is that like any consumer site that before posting you accept reasoned criticism not just praise from commenters will be allowed.

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AJC Catering Trailers

July 28th, 2010

This is the first of a series of posts Identifying all of the main
organisations and manufacturers players in the UK catering trailer industry.

AJC Catering Trailers is One of the largest and most successful catering trailer companies in the UK

Where most catering trailer companies specialize in one part of the market, AJC operate across the full mobile catering spectrum, even to static kiosks.

They are ISO9001 Accredited and operate from a large manufacturing and showroom base in Luton

Here is the broad range of the products

Catering Carts
At the smallest end of the range are catering carts – The “pushcart” range, for hotdogs, popcorn and so on.

Catering Trailers
AJC manufacture catering Trailers across a variety of size ranges and sophistication.

The small “Compact” range of catering trailers are designed for situations where space really is a premium

Regis Catering Trailers are the standard range – with single or twin axles.

Trademaster – Is aimed at the professional market and is the deluxe mid range catering trailer.

EventsMan is the largest professional end for high customer throughput, requiring multiple servers and equipment.

Catering Vans
The company also supply Catering Vans and conversions including the Jiffy Truck which is a very common sight offering sandwiches on many industrial and trading estates to the larger Vanmaster “stand in” catering vans, designed for longer standing in all weather.

In addition the company supply Kiosks and static catering units.

Mobile Catering Equipment
And a full range of mobile catering equipment including:Griddles, Bain Marie, Deep Fryers, Scuttles, Industrial Ovens, Burners, Refrigeration, Catering Boilers, Commercial Coffee Machines, Doughnut Makers and Portable Generators

Contact Details
AJC can be contacted at:
Tel 01582 486663 Fax 01582 487077
Unit 10, Cosgrove Way, Luton, Bedfordshire LU11XL (5 mins from J11 M1)

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Catering Trailers

May 27th, 2010

The Catering Trailers Business – Is it for you?

Mobile Catering Trailers can be a great business for SOME people.
But certainly not everyone!

Here are some things to think about BEFORE you discover them the hardway.

1/ Mobile catering can have very antisocial hours.

Catering trailers is a catchall term for a variety of different types of business. So the hours depend on the type of the business.

Road side caterers for example, are catering to commercial travellers and lorry drivers. That means getting up early, and being on location before most leave home for work. Event caterers or park concession caterers are obliged to work at weekends, which is when the main trade is.

So consider when you have to work before making up your mind.

2/ A Catering Trailer is a people business – So Do you like people?

Catering Trailers are about people, not just food. Customers will come back if they see you as a pleasant person, nothing puts customers off more than rude or offhand behaviour.

You will do best with a smile – can you smile at the end of a long weekend when it is raining?

3/ You are the boss. And that can be a two edged sword.

The fact is you will work for you. And many employees find it unnerving to have no support structure at all. In fact many find the existence of running a small business very lonely.

4/ Drive and determination.

A mobile catering trailer business will go through bad patches – no doubt about it. Only the determined can succeed in any small business.

If you don’t have that drive and want to coast, then you are better off as an employee.

5/ Mobile catering may not be as flexible as you may think. die

Take market trading for example . Don’t expect to disappear for a week on holiday, and expect to find your pitch still there! There is a queue of potential traders wanting to join every market.

Take roadside catering. The day the best locations are vacated, you can be sure that someone will show interest.

How will you cope with illness and holidays. Failing to plan for events like this, is planning to fail!

6/ Mobile Catering is Attention to detail

You have to have attention to detail: to be a stickler for cleanliness, and all of that is about good organisation. A lot of graft and repetition.

Fail to do this, and you could easily fail a safety inspection. Be warned! – and even without that, customers like clean and tidy, particularly if they are trusting you to serve them food.

So think it all through.

Even if you are willing to put up with the downside, ask your family too. If your family are not bought into the idea, then that can be one more problem than your new business can survive!

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Catering Trailers – Is Event Catering Profitable?

May 27th, 2010

To a newcomer event catering sounds like a surefire income stream.

Any experienced catering trailer operator will tell you to be VERY careful.

Here are some issues to think about.

1/ Apply far enough in advance.

Many events book caterers, months, if not many months in advance.

2/ You can only rely on agreements whose details you can prove!

It should not be so, but sadly you cannot challenge any agreement that is not set out in writing.
Don’t part with money unless and until you have an agreement in writing

The real issue is profit.

3/ Is A part of a part of a part..enough to make a profit?

A couple of hundred £££ does not sound high for a catering trailer rent or deposit. The answer is it all depends.

Begin by asking the event organiser for the expected attendance, then take what he says with a pinch of salt
and allow for the fact that british rain kills the enthusiasm of all but the hardiest visitors!, and event organisers always assess attendance through rose tinted glasses.

Only a percentage of the visitors will ever use event catering at all, which depends on the type of event.
Whilst some events can be higher, don’t rely on more than (say) one third of visitors using catering at all.

These visitors will split between the caterers. Burger and hotdog stalls tend to get the lions share of trade, perhaps two thirds, with specialist and unusual caterers perhaps getting only one third of the trade.

Then the real problem!
That trade is divided between the catering trailers present.

For that reason you MUST get included in the agreement the maximum number of caterers
invited to attend. Without this the competition can be ruinous.

See how this can play out in practise.

5000 visitors to an event may sound a lot , but even if they turn out to the event, only a third to a half may be interested in catering.

If you arent selling hot dogs or burgers, then you are unlikely to find more than one third of those interested in your offer, and that will be divided amongst all of the caterers present. If there are three caterers, then your trade will be one third of a third of a third.

That could be only a hundred customers!!

So make sure you know the amount of competition, and get this in writing with the organiser, and allow for all of the factors that affect the number of customers before agreeing a deposit and the price of the pitch.

In the end it is all about profit.

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Mobile Catering Equipment for Catering Trailers

April 21st, 2010

After you have hunted down and purchased your catering  trailer, van or truck for your mobile catering business you need to get it properly equipped for food storage and preparation.

There is a massive range of mobile catering equipment out there so you need to be selective. A lot course depends on what you plan to cook and serve.. For example a deep fryer is an absolute must have if you are going to be serving French fries but would be completely useless in an ice cream van.

For the newcomers – here is a list of the most common mobile catering  equipment found in a  catering vehicle:.

Griddle: You most probably cannot do without this one. A kind of a hot plate it is indispensable when it comes to cooking burgers, toasts, eggs, sausages and the like. They come with either 1, 2, 3 or 4 burners and you should choose one based on your expected usage.

Water boiler: If you are planning to serve any hot drinks this has got to be on top of your shopping list of mobile catering equipment. It works similar to the kettle you have at home but with a much higher capacity ranging between 5 – 10 gallons.

Fryer: The use of this handy device is not limited to just frying chips but can even be employed for the preparation of burgers and fish nuggets among countless other things.

Fridge: If you need to keep some ingredients cool through the working day you absolutely cannot do without a fridge – clearly this is a safety, not just a practical issue. It is very useful for the storage of milk, meat, burgers etc. Also make sure you get one with a freezer section in case you need to store frozen goods and ice cream.

Bain Marie: This is a piece of equipment that has several compartments (1, 2 or 3) within which hot food can be stored without worrying about it getting cold. How it works is that these steel compartments sit in a tank of hot water maintaining the food’s temperature at a level at which is more resistant to growth of bacteria.

So analyze your entire cooking process and make a more comprehensive list of the right mobile catering equipment for your business.

Posted in Mobile Catering | 4 Comments »

Catering Carts – Small Mobile Catering

April 20th, 2010

Have you considered catering carts?

Are you hoping  to start you own mobile catering business but finding it hard to break in?

Not because you lack entrepreneur skills, culinary know-how or determination but for the simple reason that you are not able to arrange for the monetary funding. Well, that is not surprising as many people are deterred from venturing into this line of work because of the considerable investment required for the purchase of a catering trailer or van.

Not to mention the substantial sum of money that needs to be set aside for obtaining sanctions and insurance. Well then, there is one way out for you – Catering Carts. This is an option that offers many of the benefits that are associated with catering trailers and vans but at a fraction of the cost.

Now of course you might have to scale down your plans for your business a bit.

You certainly cannot easily cook  three course meals on a cart. You will have to think about selling foods that require little or no preparation.

Some classic ideas that have survived generations are the hot-dog cart and the pop-corn cart. Very lucrative they can be in the right location. But you do increasingly see people selling everything from tacos to sandwiches to baked potatoes on catering carts so don’t get too discourage by the limitations. Try to work out a compromise.

A little lateral thinking is useful to differentiate you from the competition! – You may not be able to serve bacon and eggs since it requires instant cooking but you could prepare egg sandwiches in your kitchen at home and sell them through your cart.

Another popular option that you might want to look into is the ice cream cart. This is much cheaper to set up then an ice cream van business but could be just as profitable. All the equipment you need is a simple cooler or cold box, possibly filled with dry ice that provides an insulated environment for your ice cream as you move about town selling them.

You could opt for either going in for a traditional push cart or have one pulled by a tricycle. In certain countries like Cambodia, igloo boxes are attached to mopeds for the sake of selling ice cream. While these carts vary in form and function and some may suit certain businesses better than others, they all have mobility at the heart of their design. The concept of catering carts is to sell at the very grass-root level. Get the product right to the place where it is most in demand. And if you have the knack for that then this might very well be the perfect line of work for you.

Posted in Catering Carts | 44 Comments »

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