Opening a Creperie in South London

[Rui de Matos]

Hello everyone, I'm a new member and I am on the process of writing a Business Plan to open a creperie.
It will be a Breton inspired creperie, but not only, it will also have coffees and cakes
I have some experience in the hospitality industry as an employee.
I did some research and the random people said they would not pay more than £4.50 for a crepe, my rent should not be higher than 10% of my annual gross income, that leads me to rents, not above £20.000 per year, and it put me away from roads with a good footfall.
Any advise and suggestions are highly appreciated.

 

[Mr D]

Go for places with higher footfall?

 

[Rui de Matos]

Go for places with higher footfall?

roads with high foot traffic

 

[Mark T Jones]

Your choices are to go where footfall is or to create a destination

Creating a destination requires a lot of good marketing.

Is there an area where footfall is lower but more relevant?

Have you looked at pop-up or Boxpark type environments?

 

[Mr D]

roads with high foot traffic

Yes.

Any particular reason to restrict your rent to that percentage?

Further away from high foot traffic can mean a higher marketing spend.

 

[The Byre]

Every man and his dog is trying to launch a restaurant or similar enterprise - or so it seems lately!

 

[Mr D]

Every man and his dog is trying to launch a restaurant or similar enterprise - or so it seems lately!

Its a niche but if there's a sufficient gap for it ….

 

[Rui de Matos]

Yes.

Any particular reason to restrict your rent to that percentage?

Further away from high foot traffic can mean a higher marketing spend.

I found online that the rent should not exceed 10% of the annual gross income

 

[Mitch3473]

I found online that the rent should not exceed 10% of the annual gross income

But you dont know your gross income yet unless you've found a very similar enterprise in a similar town selling the same produce. You need to ask a lot more questions to the right people.

 

[Rui de Matos]

But you dont know your gross income yet unless you've found a very similar enterprise in a similar town selling the same produce. You need to ask a lot more questions to the right people.

you are right I don't know, I have to make some predictions for the business plan, so I thought of 20 seats, and how many crepes could be served for lunch and dinner

 

[Mark T Jones]

From a quick google search, the accepted norm seems to be 10 - 15%

However each case is unique, you really need to be looking at your own model to see what works for you. South London isn’t cheap, as you will have discovered!

 

[Jack Elever]

Food truck?

 

[Ian J]

I am on the process of writing a Business Plan to open a creperie.

It will be a Breton inspired creperie, but not only, it will also have coffees and cakes

As a matter of interest why a creperie?

I bought an existing creperie 30 years ago and it wasn't a great success. Mine was in Newcastle Upon Tyne so perhaps it was partly wrong time, wrong place. It was noticeable that the vast majority of the clientele were women with the macho Geordie male preferring pie and chips

 

[dan19900]

I think you'd be better off with a small kiosk type place in a busy location, similar to these guys near me who always seem busy:
https://www.tripadvisor.com.ph/Rest...iniquim_Brasil_crepes-Edinburgh_Scotland.html

Theirs are 3-7 quid each.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Two local kebab places around here get most of their trade by phone or internet ordering with home delivery and leaflet distribution every four weeks

Maybe a small industrial kitchen and just home delivery may be a lower cost method you might like to consider, spend the saved rent and rates money on advertising and a couple of moped delivery people also easy hours 110-14:00 and 17:00 to 21:00

 

[Ecomccountant]

I have heard that crepes are really good as a food truck business - you could start somewhere in market like petticoat lane. It really depends on what your target audience is, passing trade or lunch time goers etc..