07
de Febrer
de
2017
Act.
07
de Febrer
de
2017
There are almost 600 km between Torredembarra and Bilbao. It is a long and tiring journey, but it is the route just made by Pepito Bravo, the food truck in which David Montaño and Laia López travel the peninsula earning a living. And on Tuesday they had to be in the Biscayan capital, which is hosting the Food Food Truck Forum, the second edition of the sector's professional fair in Spain.
It will be two days of hard work, of serving dishes, attending to customers with a smile and, above all, of branding. That is what is to be seen from the outside, but devoting oneself to the food truck world requires more. "There are many hours of work, of preparation and making sure the van is ready," says Montaño in a meeting in Barcelona Activa on entrepreneurship in the sector.
At the moment, these restaurants on wheels are all the rage. They attract visitors to fairs, congresses and events, and are also attractive to those looking for an opportunity to begin their own food truck adventure.
Before driving, licenses in order
For a year, Montaño and López have been serving their sandwiches made from 100% organic beef through the hatch of Pepito Bravo. As both were unsatisfied with the jobs they were doing, and as they both had experience in the restaurant world, they had the "crazy idea" of getting their own caravan. "We have invested more than 40,000 euros. I wanted a van, specifically this one, and so what we have is transport to get around and a workplace all in the same vehicle," points out Montaño.
A food truck can be what they have, a van, but also a caravan pulled by a vehicle, and even a lorry. This is the case of Marta Puig and Vincenzo Cavallaro, the couple behind the steering wheel of the Na Madrona PreparaLaPasta, one of the first examples of this type of restaurant to appear in Spain after it proved a success in the United States. "Everything was very new and we had to follow what was happening abroad," recalls Puig, "we wanted to have a real restaurant on wheels, so we found some experts in Girona to help us with the technical side and we created a kitchen inside a lorry cabin."
Whatever the choice, what is clear is that it is not simply about street selling: "It is not about getting hold of a caravan and doing it up. You are serving people food and that requires optimum conditions." This is one thing that is clear to Yolanda Calvet, who along with Puig is a representative of the Catalan Food Truck Association. "We found an old caravan that was unique in Spain, so we needed a permit and an engineer to turn the vehicle into a restaurant so that it was standardised, the permit to handle food, insurance in case something happened…," she lists, in a tone that makes it clear that the list of obligations beforehand is a long one. And just as important as the health and safety aspects are the technical ones.
What all three have in common is that, before hitting the road, they had to invest significant amounts of money and time. Six months, a year... it all depends on how demanding the owner of the future business is, but it can never be done without advice, they insist.
A maturing sector
This is the second part about which there are the most doubts. Xurro, chestnut or ice cream stalls pay for a specific lot in cities. If they can do this, why can't it be the same for food trucks? "There is a legal gap. If you ask a town hall, perhaps they will say yes, while another will say no," says the cook of Pepito Bravo, Laia López.
His partner, David Montaño, adds that the problem area is that it is still an embryonic movement: "We have to remember that they see you as a catering service, but better, because it also comes with a business. They are now establishing the rules and you come across people who do it as a lifestyle choice and who only go to the big events or the private world of weddings and companies." To get an idea of how much the sector has grown, he points out that three years ago there were about 70 food trucks in Catalonia, while now there are some 400. "Until now it was just an introduction of the business model to Spain, but now it is time for it to mature," he insists.
Nevertheless, it is still more common to find vans and caravans at festivals or fairs held on the weekend in the large cities. It is a consequence of inertia, that wherever the there is social activity and where the pioneers of the movement have been going for years is now where the rest of the food trucks go. And it is this "union" that attracts customers, says Calvet, who points out that there is no fierce competition between the professionals who usually go to these events. "Each person wants a different type of cuisine, all we do is enrich the gastronomy on offer," he adds.
Unacceptable commission
The problem comes when the event organisers want to make a profit or increase the bottom line of the business. The entrepreneurs have to pay a fee for a space for a food truck. So far, the trend has been to charge a fixed amount that could be anywhere from 100 euros a day to 3,000.
The decision about whether to go or not has to be carefully made. Whether it is profitable or not has to be evaluated, whether the investment will be easy to recover so as to keep surprises to a minimum. "The Valencia Falles festival asks for 3,000 euros. Last year we went and it was the biggest mistake of the year," says Montaño, who will not be going again. However, he insists that you can find fairs that are free "with a lot of people and that are very much worth it," but he insists that "you must look at the reach of the event and the repercussions it will have for the food truck."
"Paying more than 300 euros for a weekend has to be the maximum," he says, "to pay more you need to be able to justify it because when things do not go well, you can lose a lot of money." And rain or a lower turnout than expected can mean that the costs of suppliers, staff and travel are higher than the earnings.
The origin of the abuse, from his point of view, comes from "speculation": "Many organisers have tried to overexploit their sales channel. Fairs are organised with food as their focus, when in truth it is just an extra. They have tried to make money out of us and it does not work like that, before us has to come the music and culture." For this reason, the Catalan Food Truck Association is trying to implement a commission system. "We want there to be model contracts for going to places and with guarantees. And that also implies having a model in which they make you pay a small initial fee and then a percentage, which could be 10 or 15%, which is linked to the earnings," proposes Marta Puig.
And the other days?
Saturday and Sunday are usually the heaviest work days, but they previously require many hours of preparation. In the case of Pepito Bravo, they take advantage of Monday and Friday to buy the raw materials, to make the sauces and other complements in the workshop they have set up at home, and to package everything they can so as to arrive with the fridge full. They live in a house in Torredembarra, meaning they have the 'luxury' of a garage where they can leave the van and a room dedicated exclusively to all of this preparation.
Others, such as Yolanda Calvet, have to find a parking space big enough and close enough to home where they can keep the caravan, which is an extra cost, while making the most of the space at home to prepare what they can before the events.
New concepts: the photo truck
If differentiating oneself according to type of cuisine is the key to attracting new customers for food trucks, coming up with another business model based on the use of vans and caravans is another step entirely. Representing this new segment are Andrea Sierra and Franc Ros, two of four partners who drive The Automated Pope & Poole Phototruck. "When we began doing business, in Spain there wasn't another project like this. It existed in the United States and worked, which is what led us to bring it over here," says Sierra.
In their case, most of their clients are in the private sector: company events, birthdays, weddings... Any social gathering where a lot of photographs are usually taken by attendees, in this case in a photo booth inside a vintage Volkswagen van. They are black and white images with a 1970s aesthetic. This means their preparation is limited to the technical aspects of maintaining the device as well as questions of design about whether the client wants some type of logo or an element to personalise the photos. There is no post-production nor is customer service required during the event.
"The advantage for us is that we don't need the licences for having material inside," says Ros, "but we do have to have insurance in case anything happens." As they are not forced to seek out events and pay the fees asked for attending, they charge in advance for a part of the service, which has a fixed price.
With an investment of 30,000 euros and the aim of uniting the boom in food trucks with reinventing audiovisual services, they have already spent almost a year in this business on wheels.
It will be two days of hard work, of serving dishes, attending to customers with a smile and, above all, of branding. That is what is to be seen from the outside, but devoting oneself to the food truck world requires more. "There are many hours of work, of preparation and making sure the van is ready," says Montaño in a meeting in Barcelona Activa on entrepreneurship in the sector.
At the moment, these restaurants on wheels are all the rage. They attract visitors to fairs, congresses and events, and are also attractive to those looking for an opportunity to begin their own food truck adventure.
Before driving, licenses in order
For a year, Montaño and López have been serving their sandwiches made from 100% organic beef through the hatch of Pepito Bravo. As both were unsatisfied with the jobs they were doing, and as they both had experience in the restaurant world, they had the "crazy idea" of getting their own caravan. "We have invested more than 40,000 euros. I wanted a van, specifically this one, and so what we have is transport to get around and a workplace all in the same vehicle," points out Montaño.
A food truck can be what they have, a van, but also a caravan pulled by a vehicle, and even a lorry. This is the case of Marta Puig and Vincenzo Cavallaro, the couple behind the steering wheel of the Na Madrona PreparaLaPasta, one of the first examples of this type of restaurant to appear in Spain after it proved a success in the United States. "Everything was very new and we had to follow what was happening abroad," recalls Puig, "we wanted to have a real restaurant on wheels, so we found some experts in Girona to help us with the technical side and we created a kitchen inside a lorry cabin."
 |
| The lorry that specialises in Italian dishes. Na Madrona PreparaLaPasta |
Whatever the choice, what is clear is that it is not simply about street selling: "It is not about getting hold of a caravan and doing it up. You are serving people food and that requires optimum conditions." This is one thing that is clear to Yolanda Calvet, who along with Puig is a representative of the Catalan Food Truck Association. "We found an old caravan that was unique in Spain, so we needed a permit and an engineer to turn the vehicle into a restaurant so that it was standardised, the permit to handle food, insurance in case something happened…," she lists, in a tone that makes it clear that the list of obligations beforehand is a long one. And just as important as the health and safety aspects are the technical ones.
What all three have in common is that, before hitting the road, they had to invest significant amounts of money and time. Six months, a year... it all depends on how demanding the owner of the future business is, but it can never be done without advice, they insist.
A maturing sector
This is the second part about which there are the most doubts. Xurro, chestnut or ice cream stalls pay for a specific lot in cities. If they can do this, why can't it be the same for food trucks? "There is a legal gap. If you ask a town hall, perhaps they will say yes, while another will say no," says the cook of Pepito Bravo, Laia López.
His partner, David Montaño, adds that the problem area is that it is still an embryonic movement: "We have to remember that they see you as a catering service, but better, because it also comes with a business. They are now establishing the rules and you come across people who do it as a lifestyle choice and who only go to the big events or the private world of weddings and companies." To get an idea of how much the sector has grown, he points out that three years ago there were about 70 food trucks in Catalonia, while now there are some 400. "Until now it was just an introduction of the business model to Spain, but now it is time for it to mature," he insists.
Nevertheless, it is still more common to find vans and caravans at festivals or fairs held on the weekend in the large cities. It is a consequence of inertia, that wherever the there is social activity and where the pioneers of the movement have been going for years is now where the rest of the food trucks go. And it is this "union" that attracts customers, says Calvet, who points out that there is no fierce competition between the professionals who usually go to these events. "Each person wants a different type of cuisine, all we do is enrich the gastronomy on offer," he adds.
Unacceptable commission
The problem comes when the event organisers want to make a profit or increase the bottom line of the business. The entrepreneurs have to pay a fee for a space for a food truck. So far, the trend has been to charge a fixed amount that could be anywhere from 100 euros a day to 3,000.
The decision about whether to go or not has to be carefully made. Whether it is profitable or not has to be evaluated, whether the investment will be easy to recover so as to keep surprises to a minimum. "The Valencia Falles festival asks for 3,000 euros. Last year we went and it was the biggest mistake of the year," says Montaño, who will not be going again. However, he insists that you can find fairs that are free "with a lot of people and that are very much worth it," but he insists that "you must look at the reach of the event and the repercussions it will have for the food truck."
 |
| Dressed in red, here they are serving their sandwiches. Pepito Bravo |
"Paying more than 300 euros for a weekend has to be the maximum," he says, "to pay more you need to be able to justify it because when things do not go well, you can lose a lot of money." And rain or a lower turnout than expected can mean that the costs of suppliers, staff and travel are higher than the earnings.
The origin of the abuse, from his point of view, comes from "speculation": "Many organisers have tried to overexploit their sales channel. Fairs are organised with food as their focus, when in truth it is just an extra. They have tried to make money out of us and it does not work like that, before us has to come the music and culture." For this reason, the Catalan Food Truck Association is trying to implement a commission system. "We want there to be model contracts for going to places and with guarantees. And that also implies having a model in which they make you pay a small initial fee and then a percentage, which could be 10 or 15%, which is linked to the earnings," proposes Marta Puig.
And the other days?
Saturday and Sunday are usually the heaviest work days, but they previously require many hours of preparation. In the case of Pepito Bravo, they take advantage of Monday and Friday to buy the raw materials, to make the sauces and other complements in the workshop they have set up at home, and to package everything they can so as to arrive with the fridge full. They live in a house in Torredembarra, meaning they have the 'luxury' of a garage where they can leave the van and a room dedicated exclusively to all of this preparation.
Others, such as Yolanda Calvet, have to find a parking space big enough and close enough to home where they can keep the caravan, which is an extra cost, while making the most of the space at home to prepare what they can before the events.
New concepts: the photo truck
If differentiating oneself according to type of cuisine is the key to attracting new customers for food trucks, coming up with another business model based on the use of vans and caravans is another step entirely. Representing this new segment are Andrea Sierra and Franc Ros, two of four partners who drive The Automated Pope & Poole Phototruck. "When we began doing business, in Spain there wasn't another project like this. It existed in the United States and worked, which is what led us to bring it over here," says Sierra.
In their case, most of their clients are in the private sector: company events, birthdays, weddings... Any social gathering where a lot of photographs are usually taken by attendees, in this case in a photo booth inside a vintage Volkswagen van. They are black and white images with a 1970s aesthetic. This means their preparation is limited to the technical aspects of maintaining the device as well as questions of design about whether the client wants some type of logo or an element to personalise the photos. There is no post-production nor is customer service required during the event.
 |
| The machine is inside the van. Pope & Pool Phototruck |
"The advantage for us is that we don't need the licences for having material inside," says Ros, "but we do have to have insurance in case anything happens." As they are not forced to seek out events and pay the fees asked for attending, they charge in advance for a part of the service, which has a fixed price.
With an investment of 30,000 euros and the aim of uniting the boom in food trucks with reinventing audiovisual services, they have already spent almost a year in this business on wheels.