Mobile Coffee Stall Ins and Outs!

TheJesusLizard

Hi,

I'm looking into the possibility of setting up a very small mobile coffee stand from a properly kitted out bike or small van in my local area. I live in a village and there are some industrial parks and larger towns near where I live. I was thinking of selling coffee and maybe snacks during lunch breaks in the car park of these parks. I'm looking to see if -

1. It's legal.

2. What kind of insurance/public liability might be needed?

3. Anything else I may need to consider.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. If it's not, I shall remove it and put it in the correct forum. If anyone has any advice, I would genuinely appreciate it!

Thanks :-)

maxwell smart

TheJesusLizard wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking into the possibility of setting up a very small mobile coffee stand from a properly kitted out bike or small van in my local area. I live in a village and there are some industrial parks and larger towns near where I live. I was thinking of selling coffee and maybe snacks during lunch breaks in the car park of these parks. I'm looking to see if -

1. It's legal.

2. What kind of insurance/public liability might be needed?

3. Anything else I may need to consider.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. If it's not, I shall remove it and put it in the correct forum. If anyone has any advice, I would genuinely appreciate it!

Thanks :-)

Firstly best of luck!

1. I'm quite sure it is legal, but I think you will need to check with the business parks if you are allowed to sell on their property

2. You'll need public liability (probably up to 10m). Also you'll need a HAACP process in place.

3. For the coffee - power and water. How big is your mobile platform? I have seen the entire spectrum from a small French WW2 van with a full barista machine to a 3 wheel bicycle with a commercial Nespresso machine on it.

If i was you I'd get proper advice on point 2

TheJesusLizard

Thanks for your great advice Maxwell! I'll especially take into consideration what you said about point two and do some further research. Have a nice Sunday :-)

the beer revolu

My wife did this some years ago in Cork.

Yes, you will need public liability insurance. Check out https://www.arachas.ie/

The biggest problem was finding locations to trade. This may be dependant of the particular city/county council but she was not allowed to trade on any public property. She serviced, mostly building sites which would have been great if she could have been in several sites at the same time as they tend to take breaks at the same time. Basically, you need a lot of footfall. A lot.

Markets can be good if you can get in cheap but some of the public market days are prohibitively expensive. Coffee has a high margin but a relatively low spend - you need to sell a lot of coffees to make money.

You really need to do good research on location and footfall.

The best set up we came up with was a gas fired espresso machine with a truck/van battery running the grinder and the electrics of the machine. The coffee machine was particular about what kind of inverter was used - you need one that produces a true sine wave - it seems.

Running and espresso machine off a generator was not a great idea in our experience. Noisy and hot.

You don't need a huge water supply - a few 10 litre cans did the trick.

My wife loved it. It was a Piaggio Apé with a rancillio 2 head machine and a Mazzer super Jolly grinder. At the time, it was the best coffee in Cork. Unfortunately, though, she struggled to make a living from it and ended up selling it.

I hope this helps

TheJesusLizard

Hi the beer revolu - thank you very much for your reply as you have given me a lot of food for thought! I have a couple of questions for you, if that's ok.

What amount did the public liability insurance cover e.g. 5 million, 10 million etc?

Did your wife try selling coffee in industrial estates? If so, how did it go?

Once again, thanks for the great advice the beer revolu :-)

the beer revolu

TheJesusLizard wrote: »

Hi the beer revolu - thank you very much for your reply as you have given me a lot of food for thought! I have a couple of questions for you, if that's ok.

What amount did the public liability insurance cover e.g. 5 million, 10 million etc?

Did your wife try selling coffee in industrial estates? If so, how did it go?

Once again, thanks for the great advice the beer revolu :-)

I'll have to get back to you on the first question. Wife is away atm and will have to look back on her books.

There weren't many suitable industrial estates for her business. Often they are two spread out and you get very little foot traffic in one location.