Catering sized portions?

[RobinC]

Lets say, for examples sake a street vendor outside of London & not at a captive audience venue

Then I'd probably agree with Slatts - £3 to £3.50

[Swindon_Ed]

£105-£122 minus your fuel, pork, rolls, sauces and time but if you can add another shoulder to that cook and some ribs then that's a nice amount of money if you can sell it all.
I have my dreams

Remember most places will charge you 20% (sometimes more) of your takings to vend and then if you're successful and your turnover goes above £70k you'll then have to start paying 20% VAT.

If you're not selling every day, you then need to start thinking about waste and how much that will cost.

Personally i would be selling for £5 per roll minimum.

[Gary Morris]

Just my thoughts.
I don't think you can get a selling price without knowing your food costs, you can't get food costs until you have an item to sell and know how much it costs.

You need to plan your 'menu' for each item ie:pork roll, coffee, pop etc. Then source your supplier's, that would give you your food costs.
You can then work out your selling price (what the market will stand) and net profit (Selling Price - Food Costs)

Then you have to take out all other costs. Ground rent, fuel, transport costs, gas/electric, disposables, equipment depreciation, legal costs, Insurance, etc.

Gross Profit = Selling Price-(food costs+other costs)

When you have these, then you can forecast where your break even and profit points are. There are ways to circumnavigate around things and there is always compromise, but that would be your choice.

[aris]

I didn't say is was too small, just nothing to write home about. Much depends on how much you charge. People perceive value in different ways. One is portion size.

[Saucy Pig]

With some home made slaw and a good helping of sauce just over 1/4 lb is a decent looking roll.
Its about the amount we aim to serve. Any more and it would cost us money to turn up to events. People, around here at least, would never pay more than £3.50 for a sandwich unless of course you're the only caterer onsite, and even then prepare for the moans and gripes. Unfortunately many people judge a pulled pork or brisket roll the same way they judge a burger. They don't care that you spent months building a flavour profile and honing your rub, twelve hours smoking it tending your pit then pulling it by hand. The majority only seem to care that you're £1 more expensive than the hog roast man next door.

[aris]

If you are competing on price, against frozen burgers from Booker - then don't bother. If you are selling to a crowd who appreciate a unique quality product, then by all means - charge more, but give them good value. £3.50 IMHO is too cheap. You wouldn't get a big mac for that.

[keith157]

A good point aris, I think a lot depends on what the market will stand, simplistic I know, but you can't charge Rolls Royce prices in an area that can only afford Mondeos. The rise of these "artisan" burger companies show that, I doubt any of them are in low income areas. McDonalds expects to offset it's losses in one franchise area with gains made in others.

[RobinC]

If you are competing on price, against frozen burgers from Booker - then don't bother. If you are selling to a crowd who appreciate a unique quality product, then by all means - charge more, but give them good value. £3.50 IMHO is too cheap. You wouldn't get a big mac for that.

well you would get a Big Mac for that. You wouldn't get a Big Mac meal though. Not that I'm a fan of McDonalds (and have never actually eaten a Big Mac) but you would also get to eat your burger in a clean environment that has toilets.

You are always going to be competing on price, it's just a question of who you are competing against. As a couple of people have already said you need to do your sums and look at where you are going to be selling.

[derekmiller]

Well location also has a lot to do with it.
If you had a rib meat roll from "The Ribman" in the City of London, at a lunchtime pitch, a normal roll is £6, a large one is £10.

And ConnorD can vouch for the queues, he has always run out by the time I get there.

[Saucy Pig]

True enough about judging your location and customers but you don't always get to choose your pitch. You have only a rough idea how many caterers will attend and an even rougher idea of turnout. We've done events being told we're the only caterer onsite and turned up to be put between two burger vans. There aren't many guarantees in this business.
Sure I can say I'm not going as the crowd wont pay £5 a roll like I wish they would but you never know when one of those customers paying £3.50 will hire you for a private event which has happened to us in the past.