Opening up a sandwich hut business

thenap80

Hi
I am thinking of starting a catering business and have heard of container units that can be converted to my own requirements.

I am thinking of having a sandwich selling business as well all the add-ons and top set up in a place such as a supermarket car park.

What are the steps involved in achieving this. Will it be a case of approaching a supermarket HQ and seeing what they have to say?
What are the costs likely to be?

DomRavioli

I don't know of a single supermarket who doesn't sell sandwiches, so why would they let a direct competitor near their store on their land?

Common sense people.

thenap80

Cooked sandwiches...bacon, fried egg! But cheers for your input,

asajj

http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/pdfs/publication/starting-up-booklet.pdf

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-industry/caterers/startingup

antrobus

thenap80 wrote: »

Cooked sandwiches...bacon, fried egg! But cheers for your input,

I think you'll find that a lot of supermarkets do those as well. (They have cafes.) And the one's that don't probably won't want you taking up valuable parking spaces.:)

Having said that, I do know of a B&Q that seems to permanently have a hot breakfast/burger van parked up outside. Perhaps a high traffic non-food retailer would be a better bet.

geordie_joe

thenap80 wrote: »

Cooked sandwiches...bacon, fried egg! But cheers for your input,

Yes but if someone goes to the supermarket for a sandwich and sees your hut they may just decide to have one of yours instead of the usual ham salad they were going to get.

In any case the supermarket is going to think "anyone eating one of your sarnnies isn't going to come in here and buy one of ours".

If I were you I would look for a trading eastate or the like. Somewhere people will buy because it is easy than going to the supermarket.

It will take a while to gain customers as people who are at work have already made arrangements for their lunch. So it will take time for them to trust that you will be there if they don't bother making a packed lunch.

lincroft1710

Homebase in Bedford have a mobile snackbar on their car park, so look for no food outlet retail parks.

macman

There are thousands of supermarkets in the UK, if you think this is such a good idea, how come no-one else has done it? The rental you'd have to pay the supermarket would not begin to outweigh the loss in trade to their own sandwich sales. The only businesses they allow to work out of their car parks are ones that don't compete, and bring in customers: car washing is the obvious one.

InsideInsurance

macman wrote: »

There are thousands of supermarkets in the UK, if you think this is such a good idea, how come no-one else has done it?

With that attitude no one would ever invent/ start anything - though in this case I agree its a non-flyer.

Next to our local supermarket there is a hot food trailer but its parked in a layby next to the supermarket and not on the supermarkets land/ carpark. It certainly seens to do a roaring trade as the layby is always jammed with cars and you occasionally see people park up in the supermarket carpark nearest to it and then climb up the bank to order.

Never stopped at it so dont actually know what they sell but it seems to be lunch and evening that its there rather than mornings.

Agree with others that its better to look at retail parks or public land near things rather than another food business' property.

thenap80

The mention of a location inside a supermarket car park was just a passing comment. Yes I agree it would be better in a retail parl but I was more looking for advice on the actual start up!

Flyonthewall

thenap80 wrote: »

The mention of a location inside a supermarket car park was just a passing comment. Yes I agree it would be better in a retail parl but I was more looking for advice on the actual start up!

Really you need to look into a lot of it yourself. See what prices things are, think about what products you'd need etc.

Costs could vary greatly. You said you'd heard about some container units that could be converted. Only you know where they are and, I assume, the cost. If not you need to ask those selling it. To convert it, only you know what their current state is so think about what you'll need to convert it and look up costs.

The actual foods, well it depends on exactly what you buy and how much of it you buy. More you buy in bulk the bigger the discounts are likely to be.

Then there's insurance, you can do a quote for that.

I'd suggest going around the area you wish to sell in and looking for suitable places and the amount of traffic/people who pass by it. Also make sure you can legally sell there.

You also need to research any local businesses offering food that could be competition and see what they charge and work out if, based on your costs, you could possibly make a profit.

After all that, it's really a case of buying it all, setting it up and getting the word out.