starting a sandwich delivery round, what to do

[carin]

Hi there, I have recently opened over the last few months a coffee shop café. which we use as a base to sell on sandwiches, hot sandwiches and hot drinks,for takeaway. Although we do not offer to deliver, there appears to be a lot of scope and businesses are asking if we could. Can anyone give some good advice on starting on sandwiches rounds and what we would really need to go through.
Any advice is much appreciated,
thanks:|

 

[TotallySport]

before you do anything make sure you get a round, before you buy anything.

Get 10-20 business which you will visit before x am.

Talk to the council to find out what you need if anything, the main issue I think will be labeling.

and go about it, your also going to have to decide if you want to get pre orders or just make a selection and go round places with a trolley.

 

[Socio South West]

This sounds like a natural extension to your existing business, and one that will be well worth following up with some planning.

The costs of delivery alone are quite high - besides labour, you have the purchase/lease of a vehicle, fuel and other running costs, insurance etc etc... and before you say you will use your own car for the deliveries, make sure your insurance covers you for this.

The other consideration is when the deliveries are required - I guess most will want delivery between 11am and 1pm, so a two hour window, which for a single vehicle as presumably the operation will be initially, geographical targetting will be necessary.

Whether you make to order, or arrive with a selection is up to you - Making to order would be good, and if you could set up something online with larger companies where they email - or even phone - their orders in before say 9.30 every day you could have quite a good thing going for a quality product - but naturally at cost. If you could get -say - 15 orders for delivery to the same place each day, you could certainly think about offering free delivery to them

So a geographically targetted campaign to add companies close to those who have expressed interest, and you should be able to get something going, and from there, hopefully business should steadily develop. However, take care to keep an eye on the delivery costs.

As others have said, check with the Council what is required, although I don't think there is much more to worry about than you already deal with in the direct retail situation.

 

[simon field]

Agree it's all about planning.

Because don't forget, in many industrial estate / business park type places, employees will have fixed times for breaks, ie 10 o'clock. / 1 o'clock.

Whilst some employees will be lenient with the strictness of this, others will not appreciate gaggles of workers gathered round a pie van (if that's the route you go down) when break time is over / hasn't started yet.

Also, 'pitch wars'. I've heard a few horror stories so do your homework!

As an aside, hot deli (hog roast, turkey&bacon, beef) always seems to sell very well from b&m premises - I'd consider the possibilities there.

Good Luck

 

[Peanut Butter Man]

Hi there, I have recently opened over the last few months a coffee shop café. which we use as a base to sell on sandwiches, hot sandwiches and hot drinks,for takeaway. Although we do not offer to deliver, there appears to be a lot of scope and businesses are asking if we could. Can anyone give some good advice on starting on sandwiches rounds and what we would really need to go through.
Any advice is much appreciated,
thanks:|

Agree with some of the comments above and it depends on your area, if delivering to offices in your own high street this can be done on foot also no need to be there in a two hour window as offices have fridges and so deliveries from 9.30 upwards will be fine (make sure you don't leave yourself short staffed at peak times in the shop so maybe get a part timer in to do this for you)

You can do butties but why not look at other offerings, salads in trays, stand out from the crowd a little.

Also, offer to do the catering of small meetings. offices always have people in for one thing or another and often these are fed..

 

[KarlYau]

We took over a cafe about 3 months ago, it has a sandwich van round included. It is very lucrative - so much so, that we are starting a second round soon. It is hard work and you need an honest, reliable, intelligent person to run it for you. But the synergies between cafe and van are obviously there to be harnessed. Good luck, I hope you're not in Hampshire!

 

[Gotum]

I'll take a sausage and egg toasted sandwich every morning. But the sausage must be cumberland and the egg slightly soft yoke, oh and the toast dark brown but not burnt and none of that soggy butter, only real butter please.

My point being you need to go meet your potential customers and get some broad feedback. That means hitting the road with a basket of sandwiches and a smile.

As for 'pitch territory wars'. I'm sure you'll figure that out as you go.

Try and stay away from the council for as long as possible as they could have you tied up for months and steal all your profit in fees, licences etc.

Get out there; and good luck. 'No nothing and nothing happens'