Catering Opportunity: How Food Businesses Are Regaining Profitability

While food delivery apps have gotten all the press in the last few years as the food industry’s modern gold rush, another revenue opportunity has been growing in the shadows—and it’s one many food businesses can’t afford to ignore: catering

Catering spending is at an all-time high, with no end in sight for growth.

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In an era of shrinking traffic, low margins, and rising costs, many food businesses are finding catering a powerful way of regaining brand equity and profitability—and so can you.

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In this article, we’ll discuss…

• Why catering can be 4-5x more profitable than normal restaurant service
• The challenges any new caterer needs to anticipate
• 3 things all successful caterers have in common

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Can catering help your business regain profitability? Let’s find out.

Why Restaurants Can’t Ignore Catering

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With companies doing everything they can to attract and retain talent, skilled workers are often given the royal treatment, which had led to corporate catering exploding as an employee wellness perk. Even social catering requests for personal events, birthdays, and parties have grown dramatically, accounting for 63% of orders.

Challenges New Catering Operations Need To Anticipate

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Launching a catering initiative isn’t as straightforward as putting your restaurant on a food delivery app. There are some considerable challenges that need to be worked through before you can begin experiencing those wild margins.

• A ship without a captain. It’s important to identify and empower someone who can lead the catering charge. Changing systems, getting employee buy-in, tracking progress—it’s not a small task, and someone (or some people) need to make sure the execution is controlled and cohesive.
• Vans, drivers, and extra gear. Who actually gets the food from your location to your customers’? What vehicles do they use? Do you need to purchase other items, like insulated containers or drink carriers? Think through every step of delivery to ensure you don’t ruin an order because of something simple.
• Finding time to fulfill orders. If your restaurant’s kitchen is quiet during certain hours, those can be great times to build in catering fulfillment systems. However, this doesn’t always work—Jason’s Deli gets the bulk of their catering orders complete before their stores even open so that they’re free to accept last-minute orders. Take an honest look at when you have the time and resources to fulfill orders, then make a thoughtful plan around those times.

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But the greatest challenge isn’t in the logistics themselves, it’s in preserving the customer-centered brand experience. Your customers love your restaurant for a reason—and it’s not just the food.

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