Snack Van

[dmcniven]

I am very interested in business, I have just turned 20 and would like to start off nice and basic.

Hi guys, this is an option which I do have, and belive, from where I am proposing to be sited will generate a decent amount of cash, especially if I opened more than 1.

I personally know nothing about catering, however, my friend who would work for me, has worked & managed snack vans previously. I do not want to ask any other snack van owners about this, so if you have any answers they would be greatly appreciated.

I am hoping to set up a snack van in the Glasgow area, it will be on private ground, I know I do not need a site licence, what other trading licences would be required? I will require insurance, am I correct?

I look forward to hearing your comments, thank you.

 

[ginantonic]

You will need Food & Hygiene certificates, and Public Liability insurance. Try Caterer's Club for that, we use them and they're excellent. You shouldn't need any other licences (in the UK, anyway) but things may be different in Scotland. The only other thing you will need to do is get the Environmental Health Dept out to inspect you, ring them first and they will give you all the paperwork and guidelines, it's mainly common sense stuff like fridge temperatures, bins, storage, handwashing facilities etc.
Hope this helps. (We used to have a Fish and Chip van, and a standard catering van.)

 

[iTopz]

I am quite uneducated on the money that snack vans create but it can't be worth it from scracth surely?

Sorry to sound so dire. If I were to open a snack van I'd make sure I wasn't working on the ground and would try to expand as quickly. If possible try situating yourself near a football stadium?

Sorry for the negativity as I may be wrong...just a thought.

 

[dmcniven]

No your not wrong mate, thats exactly what you need good pitches, the van around here claims he turnsover £60,000 per annum. If you have 3 or 4 vans that could be a bit, its not like id have to work in them.

 

[ginantonic]

The problem is, all the good pitches are taken already. And that is a HUGE problem. You're not going to make that sort of money on a back street somewhere.

 

[dmcniven]

Yeah thats correct also! There is a new supermarket established where I am from and I was going to approach them to see if they would allow me to setup at the back of the car park, then, to provide there staff with free lunch if they wanted.

 

[ginantonic]

The B&Q store near me has a burger van on it's carpark - aimed at the builders etc that shop there early, it does a good trade. Have never seen one on any of the big supermarket carparks, though. There must be a reason for that (they won't allow it), or they would be everywhere already. The only one I have ever seen was a Spam (yuk) promo van at Morrisons's once. when they were trying to make Spam (yuk again) popular. Don't think it worked, everyone still hates the bloody stuff!

 

[i234i]

check adtrader alot of pitches and snack vans for sale there which include pitches and stuff.. might be worth a shot

as above you wont need a licence really for trading on a particular space but will need Food and Hygeine Certificates + Public Liability + Env. Health inspection every so often & usually when or before you open.

if you need any help or thinking of areas im in Glasgow area.

 

[i234i]

The B&Q store near me has a burger van on it's carpark - aimed at the builders etc that shop there early, it does a good trade. Have never seen one on any of the big supermarket carparks, though. There must be a reason for that (they won't allow it), or they would be everywhere already. The only one I have ever seen was a Spam (yuk) promo van at Morrisons's once. when they were trying to make Spam (yuk again) popular. Don't think it worked, everyone still hates the bloody stuff!

I know from experience that Asda and Tesco etc dont allow it.
Focus here has one.. and much more likely to let you.
also Lidl and Aldi allowed it.

Watch for new industrial estates opening aswell as that can be good if they dont have a cafe and is quite full with tenants.

 

[wordsinart]

I know nothing about commericial catering but...

I see you're in Glasgow mate.

Make sure that you do:
- potato scone and egg rolls
- burger with onions
- lots of Irn Bru

And find a B&Q car park - my local B&G does all of the abve 'recipes' and they're fantastic and very popular

Good Luck

 

[avonpavers]

i sell burger vans and its a hard business to get into unless you have some good contacts.most of these vans are struggleing at the minute the big boys with show booking and corprates are down 50% my advise is to find a pitch thats never been stood on before and build it up.100s buy trailers and vans and fail its not easy.and burger wars are real it can be dangerrous if you have a big earning pitch

 

[Tabbie]

one thing I have noticed is that no one has one of these catering vans that provide meals for all types of diets such as an atkins sandwich, a slimling world diet, weight watchers etc - woman in an office would love it. i am a vegan and i cant buy a sandwich anywhere even if i wanted to but if someone bought a vegan sandwich id probably buy 10 a day just because I was able to buy one - eventually!!! lol

 

[dmcniven]

I know nothing about commericial catering but...

I see you're in Glasgow mate.

Make sure that you do:
- potato scone and egg rolls
- burger with onions
- lots of Irn Bru

And find a B&Q car park - my local B&G does all of the abve 'recipes' and they're fantastic and very popular

Good Luck

It's what the customers want mate!! Ha

 

[dmcniven]

i sell burger vans and its a hard business to get into unless you have some good contacts.most of these vans are struggleing at the minute the big boys with show booking and corprates are down 50% my advise is to find a pitch thats never been stood on before and build it up.100s buy trailers and vans and fail its not easy.and burger wars are real it can be dangerrous if you have a big earning pitch

Im aware of all this mate, especially in Glasgow, shouldnt be a problem though.

 

[crazyshady]

check adtrader alot of pitches and snack vans for sale there which include pitches and stuff.. might be worth a shot

as above you wont need a licence really for trading on a particular space but will need Food and Hygeine Certificates + Public Liability + Env. Health inspection every so often & usually when or before you open.

if you need any help or thinking of areas im in Glasgow area.

You never said that to me when i first enquired about them lol.

 

[mcgovern]

I spoke to someone a few years back and he informed me that one particular company has the contract for all the B&Q sites, and you have to put in a tender to get the site

 

[crazyshady]

I know the one local to me, the woman who works in it her man works inside the B&Q. Just out of curiosity how would you find something like that out or how would you explain it over the phone, would you ask to speak to the manager or something? What i noticed when i was first looking into it was there are lots of places to trade but who actually owns the property is impossible to find out.

For a while i was gonna chance it because the van i was going to get was owned by someoone who chanced it for ages and was never questioned on if he had permission to trade. I think he traded near the airport for a while too. I was gonna try a few Asdas but figured that would be a no-no because they have their own cafe but it is in an industrial park with tons of other stores so i think it might be one company that owns the whole lot rather than just approaching a shop and asking about trading on their car park.

 

[mcgovern]

you could speak to the Manager of one of the shops or do a land registry check, only costs £4

 

[crazyshady]

I might do that. I am trying to think of other places locally. There are some Lidl stores which are on their own piece of ground but i just dont think there would be enough trade there and again even though their always on their own ground.....do they actually own it or have the permission to say yes or no to me. What kind of prices do you think somewhere like B&Q would charge?

 

[mcgovern]

I could only speculate as to how much they would let the space for ,
A LOT

Perhaps a pub car park , a busy pub close to town , obviously one that doesent do food lol

 

[crazyshady]

Well the one local to us we know quite well (ideal location) but the problem there is theres a primary school round the corner and also there is a cafe just down the road lol. So i think the council might have something to say about that and the cafe owner might be a bit angry. Surely the problem is always gonna be, who owns the land? Is it council owned or do they own the business etc. When i used to think about locations for a van i was always trying to find somewhere near a school but just enough that it was at the 500 metre mark.

 

[Sacha]

As mentioned previously, crazyshady, you can simply do a land registry check. Google it. All you'd have to do is find the postcode of an adjacent property, and it'll detail whether the land in question is part of said property or not.

Now, if it's privately owned land obviously you would need permission from the owner of that land. Yes you could 'chance it', but obviously sooner or later you'd be caught out. I'm not sure but there could be possible litigation for lost revenue incurred by owner of the property in question. (Though I'm sure you'd be able to 'disappear' before accepting any court appearance, and cost of suing you would be prohibitively expensive in relation to possible monetary gains, I imagine.)

The best course of action would be to find privately owned land, find the owner of that land (via land registry check), and ask to use said land. A lever to reduce rent (even obliterate it) would be to explain that as the land is currently not in use its value is lower than if that land was creating revenue. Property that's actually generating cash goes up in value, obviously. If that fails you could bargain to use the land free of charge for 3 to 4 months to allow yourself to time to 'get going', after which there could be a 'rent review'.

If it is council land I think (though I am not sure) you would need a license from them. I'm also not sure, but I think they only give out a certain amount of licenses for catering vans, and after a set amount of time review if any new plots will be issued. Obviously this depends on the council in question. The best course of action if it is council land would be to ring and ask said council.

Hope this helps,

Sacha

 

[crazyshady]

Thanks that was a lot of help. I will look into it.

 

[sharon67]

hi re your question..anyone working in the van requires a traders licenceand food hygiene cert..you must register with environmental health..and even if you are on private land you will require planning permission..bout 400 for this, well this is the case in north lanarkshire..as i was on private land with permission from owners but still had to have planning permission..ridiculous

 

[ThePublisher]

This thread is two years old

 

[Mitch3473]

No your not wrong mate, thats exactly what you need good pitches, the van around here claims he turnsover £60,000 per annum. If you have 3 or 4 vans that could be a bit, its not like id have to work in them.

Ask him about actual and net profit,there is a huge difference.
If you're looking at employing people and having multiple sites,factor in wages,tax,NI,insurance,'wrong changing customers',shorter working hours than you might put in etc etc,Has anyone else local got multiple sites and how and why.Failing that read Duncan Bannatynes book