Catering Vans were recently a feature of the Lunch exhibition at the annual “Food On The Go” exhibition at Billingsgate Market in London on Thursday 31st September and Friday 1st October. John Worrall, MD of Proper Pasty Company and the Proper Catering Academy, delivered an overview of the Catering Van and mobile catering opportunity in todays marketplace.
There is currently a growth in interest in the mobile catering arena with more and more people wanting to start their own business and “be their own boss” and whilst this is something that we would only encourage, it is essential that new start ups approach the opportunity with an open mind.
After operating catering vans for almost 10 years now, we have experienced almost every challenge that the mobile food business has to offer, learning valuable and expensive lessons along the way.
We believe that as with all new businesses, there will be more failures than successes in this market unless someone really shows these budding entrepreneurs the ropes before they spend their savings or put their homes in jeopardy in raising the finance to get their mobile catering business off the ground.
In an effort to support new start ups, the Proper Catering Academy was created to provide a platform for catering van owners, new and old, to learn the “Proper Way”. Buying a van and making sandwiches to sell is only a fraction of the process, there are many different elements to getting it right and that is the purpose of the Proper Catering Academy.
The Academy is a mix of practical, evidential and theoretical experiences covered in a one day session in the Proper Pasty Headquarters in Sheffield, followed by an ongoing commitment to Mentor the candidates as they grow in their business. The infinite lessons that we have learned over the past ten years have been put to good use via the Academy, great business planning techiniques, wastage controls, route planning, customer service and supplier relationship management are all covered in the course materials.
John has provided many mentoring sessions historically and these have taken up a great deal of his time, these sessions have evolved into the Academy after previous attendees expressed their appreciation for the guidance and attributed their ongoing success to things that John presented to them and advised them on throughout the early stages of their business.
Businesses that were on the brink of severe decline and eventual closure have returned to John and thanked him for the guidance and invaluable advice that he has offered and those businesses are now in the process of ordering their third, fourth or fifth catering van.
The message to the audience was loud and clear, move bravely ahead and start your own business but proceed with caution and have a plan!
The Proper Catering Academy runs a Catering Van Training course on a weekly basis, for more details click on the link below and read through the course itinerary and the package.
