Have you ever wondered how much a food truck in Spain really earns? And its initial investment? Cristina and Joan, owners of a food truck that sells strawberries with chocolate at festivals and concerts, reveal the reality of this fashion business in an interview with the influencer Adrián G. Martin published on his YouTube channel. To begin with, it is not as easy as it seems to set up a business selling portable food, since it requires a large initial investment: “before serving your first dish you need between 20,000 and up to 80,000 euros to adapt the van, equip it and obtain permits.” Of course, once the business ‘starts rolling’ (pun intended), a lot of money can be made: “in a good festival, a single food truck can make up to 8,000 euros in a weekend.” But not everything is real profit, below they explain how one of the fashion businesses in Spain works.
From community manager to entrepreneur with a giant strawberry
Behind the trailer is a vital decision and a recognizable brand that does not come from nowhere. Cristina tells how she decided to set up the food truck openly: “I was a community manager, I was a mother, I got pregnant and was working for other people. I clicked and said ‘No, I think it’s time to work for myself and be able to start a business.'” The thesis of the product is also clear: “dessert is always missing…dessert is something that always fails.” And the bet, minimalist and aesthetic: “I don’t know why but I decided on strawberry… and strawberries with chocolate was something of a ‘you don’t have to like’ gesture.”
You may be interested
Javier Díaz-Giménez, economist: “When you study something that has no outlets, you end up working at a Burger King or a McDonald’s, that is making a bad decision”
A Spanish nurse who works in a nursing home in Norway: “On average I can earn about 3,400 euros a month. It’s enough for me to live on, I spend 1,500 euros a month at most”
That identity is materialized in an icon on wheels: “we wanted to stand out… so we decided to make a huge strawberry with melted chocolate. The project lasted a year.” Everything is designed to sell with sight: “the idea was that everything was very visual. So we decided to lower it completely so that the entire glass of strawberries and everything would be much more visual.” And also to operate quickly: “we have the screen with the products we have and you can pay in cash or by card… so as not to touch money… it is a way to speed up orders.”
An initial investment of between 20,000 and 80,000 euros
The “cheap and ready” theory disappears with the first Excel. They say it crudely: “Maybe 5,000 euros in papers go away and you say, of course, I thought that with €10,000 I had a food truck and it turns out that I have 5,000 in papers.” From there, the price range to start with is: “Let’s say that the base for having a food truck that can sell is 20,000 euros, 15,000 and from there we can go up to I don’t know 80,000 euros.” In his case, “around there, that is, really, then you start to add up… the machines… I think they are at 10 or 12,000.”
Access to the best venues has a price: “Some places can ask you nothing and other places from 200 to 500, 800 at festivals… per day. Per day, yes…, for two days we have paid 1,000 or so.” And, furthermore, “some festivals ask you for a certain percentage of your sale… ‘And what percentage is usually 30%.” Bureaucracy? “It’s a pretty difficult world… they ask you for a lot of paperwork… to be registered as self-employed… fire extinguishers permits… ‘you work maybe two days a week… but during the week… it’s more of an office job’”.
In a weekend you can bill 8,000 euros
The prices are simple and the margin is volatile: “at €8 per glass… the profitability of the glass is 50%, but since the strawberry is worth €10 per kilo… the chocolate is very expensive. The chocolate is worth more than the strawberry inside the glass.” The day’s accounts say: “100 sales units… That’s a tie… if you sell 100 you already win… with a food truck selling more than 500 euros a day would be a profit.” The average per day, they say, “1,000 euros a day is an average that is coherent”; the roof, they already said at the beginning, “8,000 euros in two days.”
Do you live from this? They summarize it in a phrase that many entrepreneurs want to hear: “two good salaries of 2,000 or 3,000 euros per person you get… 4,000, 5,000 euros net, let’s say, of benefit for a couple.” The return horizon is also calculated: “How long do you think it takes to recover the investment… ‘In two years it has to be paid for sure.'” And 12 months from now, “I believe that €100,000 in turnover per year can easily be achieved” if events and private events are linked together.
The invisible work (and life) behind the counter
Beyond the fair glamor, the fine print is harsh. “It is crazy among suppliers to request documentation, request events and we don’t stop for a second.” The hours are not just opening hours: “not only the hours of the event, but also the previous work that goes into cleaning strawberries cutting strawberries bringing everything ready… constantly deep cleaning.” Conciliation, to the limit: “a lot… my son is one year old… Maybe there are two days in a row that I don’t see him… if it really weren’t for them… I wouldn’t have done this.”
Learning has also been based on controlled errors: “when you arrive new… it is complicated to enter… there is also uncertainty… For example, this year, being the first, we have gone to almost all of them… we already see that festivals obviously do not fit.” And yet, they maintain faith in the simple: “we like the simple… we shouldn’t change anything… ‘the chocolate that’s not missing’”.