New products for street vending and to-go business

Good money can be made with "to-go", "take-away" or "street" products. You need few staff, have a high frequency and only pay 7 % VAT on take-away products. Sure, even with the classics - ice cream and coffee specialities to go - a nice "to-go business" can be realised. But can there be more?

Today we would like to show you five ways in which you can significantly increase your turnover in the to-go or take-away business with little investment - and also present you with a few calculations, because the margins are extremely attractive throughout.

Additional option 1: Slush and granita

"Granita" or "slush ice" is essentially a semi-frozen "drinking ice" or sorbet with a crystalline consistency. It is easy to make - you simply needa mixture of water, sugar and flavouring, similar to a classic lemonade. This mixture is filled into a slush machine and frozen there, then simply tapped off. The machines are placed on the counter - ideally clearly visible to the customers - and only need a normal 230V power connection.

Slush ice - just like normal ice - can of course be made in different ways: Simply and cheaply with ready-made concentrates that are just mixed with water and sugar. Or you can make it by hand - a little more elaborate and expensive, but of higher quality - with pressed fruit juice or purees. In the end, the important thing is that the sugar content is right.

The cost of goods per 0.3L portion is around 15-20 cents, depending on the price of raw materials, cups and straws. Of course, biodegradable cups and straws are more expensive than "normal" plastic. At a selling price of around € 2.50, minus 7% tax (in to-go sales), there is still a profit of around € 2.00 per portion, even after deducting energy and cleaning costs. A High-quality granita machine for two varieties costs around € 2,000, so it is already paid for after 1,000 portions. 

Additional option 2: Milkshake

Milkshakes are another easy-to-produce additional product: two (or three) scoops of ice cream, milk, both in a shake mixer, stir briefly - and the delicious refreshment is ready. Whether classic in the flavours vanilla, chocolate and strawberry or as a crazy combination according to the customer's wishes - any ice cream can be used for this. 

How does the calculation look here? Slightly worse than Granita, but still very attractive: two scoops of ice cream correspond to a cost of goods of about 25 cents, plus 250 ml of milk for about 15 cents plus a cup + straw for about 20 cents makes a total cost of goods of about 60 cents. If you sell the shake for €4.00, again minus 7% tax, this leaves a margin of around €3.10 per portion. Even a high-quality Hamilton Beach shake mixer (the "Ferrari" among shake mixers) only costs around €500, so it is already paid for after a good 160 shakes. And it hardly needs any counter space. So if you don't sell milkshakes yet - what are you waiting for?

Additional option 3: Smoothies

Next option: Fruity smoothies - delicious and healthy they help both sides: Your customers to boost their immune system right now, and your finances by making money with them.  

But stop, isn't that complicated? Don't you need a bunch of fresh fruit, a lot of space and have to cut the fruit for each smoothie individually? Not necessarily. 

Firstly, many of you have a fruit cooler (Fruttiniin Italian) in the counter anyway for making the sundaes - and the individual strawberry doesn't care much whether it ends up in the smoothie or on the spaghetti sundae. 

And secondly, there are new ideas here too - as an example: the company Fruteiro do Brasilspecialises in exotic tropical fruits such as mango, passion fruit, lime and guava, and offers the delicious fruit purees in suitable 100g individual portions - ideal for making smoothies. With a powerful blender, the portions do not need to be defrosted, but can be processed directly when frozen. And of course, this sets you apart from the competition - because a southern coconut-mango-acerola immune booster is not (yet) available on every corner.

The calculation in this case? The cost of goods is relatively high due to the use of fresh fruit - depending on the type of fruit used and the size of the smoothie, this is between € 0.50 and € 1.00 per smoothie, again plus the cup and straw - in total between € 0.75 and € 1.25. We recommend - again depending on the fruit and size - a retail price between € 4 and € 6.50. This leaves a margin of € 3 - € 4 per smoothie. On the other hand, you have to invest in a blender - top machines for daily use over many years cost from about € 1,200, simpler machines for occasional use are available from about € 300 .   

Additional option 4: Soft ice cream and/or frozen yogurt

Soft ice cream and frozen yoghurt are perfect to-go products: Freshly tapped from the machine, less cold than normal ice cream (-7 °C to -15 °C), creamy and airy - perfect as a take-away treat, even and especially on somewhat colder days. And in the meantime, soft ice cream has become something special again, because it is hardly ever sold outside of folk festivals and Oktoberfest (which will unfortunately be cancelled in 2020). Why? Yes, to be honest we don't understand that either, because:

Here, too, the calculation is right! Depending on the portion size, the cost of goods is about 15-20 cents per portion for soft ice cream, about 30 cents for frozen yoghurt. With a soft ice cream sales price of € 2, at least € 1.50 per portion remains (again minus 7% tax, cost of goods and energy costs). For frozen yoghurt with a retail price of € 2.50 it is even more.

A Counter soft ice cream machine only needs a 230V power connection and, depending on the model, between 30 and 50 cm of counter space. Such a countertop unit will cost you between € 8,000 and € 15,000, depending on its performance - but it has a service life of at least 15 years with low wear and tear costs. And there are now even special models for beginners or the "lazy" (e.g. the Carpigiani 161 GSP) that can be operated for up to 41 days without cleaning thanks to pasteurisation - and even then cleaning only takes a few minutes. 

And now again as a short calculation example: 200 sales days á 25 portions are 5,000 portions/year. At € 1.50 per year, that's € 7,500 per year - or € 112,500 calculated over a 15-year lifespan. The acquisition costs are quickly put into perspective...

Additional option 5: Bottled ice cream for home use

If you produce your own ice cream: Think about the possibility of filling ice cream in cups (e.g. 500ml) and selling them to take home. Like Ben&Jerry's, Häagen Dasz or Mövenpick - what the industry can do, you can do better!

This is easy to do with classic ice cream machines and a few tools - you can find a detailed description here in our article "Cup filling and ice cream to-go".

Conclusion

So you see - there are many ways to boost to-go business with comparatively little investment.

We hope we could give you some new ideas with this article and look forward to your feedback!

Your Alois Krä GmbH