New Biz - Can anyone help? Catering Trailer

paulwf

passatrider wrote: »

I suppose the most important question to ask yourself is can you cook? ;

And what the type of food is. Unless you have a captive audience an urn of hot water to make instant coffee isn't going to cut it, some colleges now have Costa branches in them. Similarly you can't compete against KFC and McD's on the price of burgers and chips, though you could on quality.

The catering trailers in my town specialise in one type of food or drinks, the more products you try and cook the more the quality will go down and the wastage increase.

easyhost

you need a branded (known) franchise trailer (dinky donuts, TastyToasty etc.) something students and the public will know the brand and more likely to buy from

paddyrg

Can you crew cater for events? Say if we're filming at a location, we'll have 20 people who will need breakfast and lunch and maybe dinner and teeas and coffees. If you have a trailer and can do a decent fixed price, the convenience of having you on site as opposed to trying to find cafe's is worth paying for.

ankspon

paddyrg wrote: »

Can you crew cater for events? Say if we're filming at a location, we'll have 20 people who will need breakfast and lunch and maybe dinner and teeas and coffees. If you have a trailer and can do a decent fixed price, the convenience of having you on site as opposed to trying to find cafe's is worth paying for.

Who do you work for?

pitkin2020

easyhost wrote: »

you need a branded (known) franchise trailer (dinky donuts, TastyToasty etc.) something students and the public will know the brand and more likely to buy from

What are you basing this advice on?? The OP hasn't given enough details of the potential clients and potential amount foot traffic. If this is going to be a low turnover business then you would be stupid to pay for a franchise as it will take you a very long time to recoup the start up costs let alone any ongoing fees. Franchises like this can work but its a numbers game if you don't have the numbers you won't make the money.

If the college is the only potential customer base you would need to know what they have on site and offer something different to tempt them your way, if your offering the same they will use which ever is most convenient.

paddyrg

davidhwdn wrote: »

Who do you work for?

Me! Freelance producer/PM :-)

easyhost

pitkin2020 wrote: »

What are you basing this advice on?? The OP hasn't given enough details of the potential clients and potential amount foot traffic. If this is going to be a low turnover business then you would be stupid to pay for a franchise as it will take you a very long time to recoup the start up costs let alone any ongoing fees. Franchises like this can work but its a numbers game if you don't have the numbers you won't make the money.

If the college is the only potential customer base you would need to know what they have on site and offer something different to tempt them your way, if your offering the same they will use which ever is most convenient.

these franchise trailer (dinky donuts, TastyToasty etc.) work on the basis your pay a one off fee to purchase the trailer/van fully branded to their product, but these vans can also be used for other products, so you are buying a branded van/trailer were yes you will have to sell their products along with anything else you want to sell.
if you saw 2 catering trailers in close proximity 1 just a std white van and 1 branded van, which 1 would you most likely be attracted to purchase from.

like PAULWF stated

The youth market today is also very much brand led, the sandwich has to be from Subway, the fries from KFC and coffee from Costa.

i know costa have branded catering vans/trailer, but you are not just obligated just to sell costa products from the van, but its a brand people are aware off

pitkin2020

easyhost wrote: »

these franchise trailer (dinky donuts, TastyToasty etc.) work on the basis your pay a one off fee to purchase the trailer/van fully branded to their product, but these vans can also be used for other products, so you are buying a branded van/trailer were yes you will have to sell their products along with anything else you want to sell.
if you saw 2 catering trailers in close proximity 1 just a std white van and 1 branded van, which 1 would you most likely be attracted to purchase from.

like PAULWF stated
i know costa have branded catering vans/trailer, but you are not just obligated just to sell costa products from the van, but its a brand people are aware off

Personally I would use which ever one looked the cleanest and served the food I wanted to eat rather than paying a premium becuase they are branded. If I wanted branded food I would head out to mcdonalds or burger king.

ankspon

paddyrg wrote: »

Me! Freelance producer/PM :-)

Have you had dealings with hollywood catering?

ecw2002

Problem with catering for college students is the 16 weeks holiday they get per year. What will happen then?