Or is this a viable business idea?

[roxyfoxy89]

For the last few years I've been toying with a business idea. I want to buy a food/ice cream van, that I can trade from in the day around businesses, but also in the evenings/at weekends in residential areas. In winter I'd sell mulled wine, hot chocolate and coffees etc as well as brownies. In the summer I'd sell ice creams/ice lollies and iced coffees! It'd have an artisan feel and be more targeted towards adults.

Is this a viable business idea or a pipe dream?

How much do you need the money? Do not do it if you are after a get rich quick scheme, a three hour work day or an empire to rival Bezos and Gates.

If you like the kind of hard work it will be and don't mind having a low to middling income then go for it. Could be tremendously rewarding.

It's certainly viable, to a degree. There are lots of food trucks who do this. But two things:

(1) Working in a catering business and at these sorts of events is hard graft and makes for long days. Dh has a business that trades at festivals in the summer (not in catering, but related), and the days are loooong even if you are just doing daytime hours. It's normal for him to leave the house by 5:30/6am to get set up for the start of trading at 9am ish and then not home until 7pm. If you are also going to do evenings, you could feasibly be working 16 hour days. If you have children, you'll obviously also need childcare. I come along on the weekends with the dc, but my job is literally to keep an eye on them. I'm no use to help out because it's impossible with children around.

(2) I think you've have to get creative about what you sell in residential areas. I can make myself a latte. I wouldn't go out to a food truck and buy it. Similar with an ice lolly. I have those in the freezer and the kids don't care if they aren't the posh ones. It would have to be something really special.

There is a coffee and pastry truck that often parks at our local Tesco, which is lovely, because sometimes you do need a proper coffee before you can face doing the shopping and this Tesco doesn't have a cafe.

TBH I think the rates for starting this type of mobile business is far less than a building and it also has some great advantages - location being changeable if needed.

You can also tap into local events - when they are back on, I used to be part of a cycle club that put on cycle cross and we wanted a coffee van but struggled to get one to come to an event hosting 400 riders and their families - all wanting drinks

TBH I went for a ride on Sunday and the local artisan caravan coffee shop (set outside lovely grounds for walks) was doing a roaring trade for coffee and cake - takeaway as always, the question was 20 long

Coffee has a very good profit margin and if you can sell cakes that are easy to travel, store overnight, possibly freeze you could add to your profit margin. Id think differently and look for non run of the mill bakes

my favourite coffee shop sells great tasting coffee, isn't stingy with the size. Bakes more unusual treats (I can get chocolate brownies anywhere or flapjacks) and biscuits - I don't always want cake but love a biscuit with a drink

We got ice cream from a Mr Whippy type van at Whitstable on Sunday. They were £3 a go but my God, this was no ordinary Mr Whippy, you could have it covered in sherbet, or crumbled oreo pieces, or crumbled Lotus biscuit pieces. They were so good we may drive back there this weekend (1hr drive) just to have some more

queue not question!

Ice cream vans are terrible polluters

Eh?

Ooh, at weekends you could drive round in the mornings with croissants, pain au chocolat, a selection of nice jams and marmalades and fresh fruit juices!

Maybe get an electric van?

I wish good trucks would become a big thing out here. One of my favourite things in San Francisco was the food trucks. We should get more people doing them here!!

The coffee and cake side of things could be good too, you would need to scout out good areas to park up in though and I think there's quite a bit of competition for pitches like that and waiting lists for licences.

This is 40 years ago (eeek) but I remember an ice cream van used to come round in the evenings selling burgers, hotdogs, crisps and sweets - it was great 🙂

From a brief flirtation with a street food festival, I'd add the following to the lists above:

• availability of water supply (you will need a lot for your coffees obv) at your proposed pitch site(s) or top ups as you drive around
• will you need gas? if so gas safety certificate for the van
• trading licences - there are a variety of them required / not required depending on precisely what you're offering
• commercial waste - the powers that be will come down on you like a ton of bricks if you are not disposing of your waste appropriately (which of course costs ££)
• food hygiene & appropriate handwashing facilities / food safety certification
• the cost of a good coffee machine is potentially more than the van. And you need a good coffee machine.

• all of the above over again for the kitchen where your cakes are being cooked - you are effectively running two sites based on what you're offering

have a look at streetfood.org.uk

I wish good trucks would become a big thing out here. One of my favourite things in San Francisco was the food trucks. We should get more people doing them here!!

I read about it a while ago and one of the main reasons they are not as common here is simply the weather. People won't be standing around there in a rain apparently

@MatildaonaWaltzer street food festival or any food festival costs are extortionate, aren't they!

I really miss the coffee van that used to come to our local park. It meant that we could buy a nice coffee whilst watching the kids wreak havoc in the playground. If you're local to me, then definitely do it!

@SchrodingersImmigrant it did give me some sympathy as to why it costs £4 for a coffee at a festival / £10 for a burger or whatever. The paperwork and waste costs! And that's before they pay a pitch fee (which it doesn't sound like OP wants to do) / cut of income to the festival. Festivals make a good % of their income from the catering / drinks / merch pitches.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

That does make sense, but I still want them!

Ice cream vans are terrible polluters

They really are. The diesel generators are noisy and the air is thick with the stench. So just be very mindful of this OP. Try and go as green as you possibly can and don't let the 'artisan' get too much in the way of offering people good fare at a good price. You don't want to be a bog standard Mr. Whippy van, nor do you want to be Gail's on wheels (because I don't want to pay £8 for a slice of mediocre banana bread). Just try and strike the balance between affordable for them, profit for you, while offering quality/artisan fare.

Sorry @roxyfoxy89 - I think you've been reading too many chick lit books like this one !

Do you have any training/expertise in making the things that you want to sell, for a start? Are you a barista? Do you have a good coffee-making machine? If you're only making up hot chocolate from a catering-sized tin of Cadbury's hot chocolate, that's not going to get you very far.

Sounds to me like a lot of cost and investment (time as well as money) that won't yield you much money but would be a lot of hard work.

However, if you were to create it as a brand and set up several of them, so you're managing a fleet of them, this would be more profitable.

@VintageTeaRose

ZoeTurtle People already having coffee at home. Yes. Nobody will ever make any money selling coffee outside of the home. Imagine such a thing as a "Coffee Shop" .... it'd be empty all day long

Yes, everybody in coffee shops lives across the street and have left their house purely to get a coffee. It's exactly the same as what the OP proposes.

We have one that is based in the park near the kids play area, often a 10 person queue, even on a rainy day there's some. I would suggest that you investigate alcohol very carefully as it's probably not cost effective, being licenced is expensive and the margin is far better on coffee. I don't think weekday evenings there's a market except ice cream in summer to be honest, coffee is a daytime drink and who leaves their warm dry house when there's a kettle in the kitchen, school pick up time near the school however could be a money spinner

@Flumpaphone

I've actually investigated delivering pastries myself but the profit wasn't high enough where I lived before (more of a Lidl kind of town kwim) coffee and pastries on a weekend or currently any day would get my business, evenings though no

Are you from Aberdeen @MintyMabel? Only place I hear a cake called a"fancy piece"!

I think there is a potential business here.

You would have to be pretty meticulous on the costs and prices, and focus on making margin on everything you sell. There is likely to be wastage so bear that in mind when fixing your costs. Target your routes carefully - my street is largely retired people rather than professionals working from home.

Unlikely to make you a millionaire but you might make a bit of useful cash. Best of luck.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

The job centre will provide you with a business consultant and financial support if you apply to them, I was offered it last week.

Our local university has "Yum Truck" that goes round at certain times supplying the staff (who haven't had a canteen for some time).

If you have somewhere like that you could maybe ask them if they have any suppliers and whether they'd be interested in you.

I’d say location and footfall is key. I can imagine near Borough Market for example, but you’d have to have permission. If not in London then high footfall.