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March 28,
2019
Starting a Food Truck Business in India: A Complete Guide
limetray.com/blog/start-food-truck-business-india
Food truck business or a restaurant on wheels has been gaining popularity as a concept
in India, among entrepreneurs and consumers alike. In this article, we will take you
through everything you need to know about starting a food truck in India.
Let’s start with these things:
Costs involved
Licenses needed
Benefits you can get
Points to keep in mind
Food truck marketing
What is the cost of opening a Food Truck in India?
An average food truck can cost anywhere between INR 8-10 lakhs in India. On the upper
end of the spectrum, a fully equipped food truck can even cost up to 20 lakhs.
Here is a complete breakdown of all the costs involved:
Vehicle: To start things off you will need a truck – you can use a second hand one
or you could buy a new truck. Typically a truck will cost you a minimum of INR 4
lakhs.
Equipment: You will also need to invest in essential kitchen equipment as a one-
time investment for your truck. This will include stove, utensils, cooking vessels,
cutlery. You may want to put a few tables and chairs so that people would have the
option to sit if they’d like (although this isn’t mandatory). All the equipment put
together would cost you around INR 2 lakhs.
Raw Material: You will need a stock of inventory or raw materials to prepare the
meals. That would cost you about INR 20-30K.
POS: Your POS is much more than a standalone piece of technology that takes care
of your billing and technology. It is linked to several key business functions
including CRM, analytics, and inventory. A good POS will cost you around INR 25-
30K (6-month pack).
Staff: You will need to hire a few resources to handle the key everyday operations
of your business, Luckily in India, costs of hiring staff are not that much. You can
leave aside around 13-15K per month per person.
Marketing: Like any other business, sales will come in only if you are promoting
and advertising your business the right way. Marketing would include both offline
and online promotions and can cost you a lot of money. You should keep aside at
least 20K a month for your marketing.
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What licenses are needed to open a Food Truck in India?
Just like any other restaurant, a food truck needs all the valid licenses. In India, the
government has already started clamping down on “illegal” food trucks (sans licenses).
Here is how it happened in Gurgaon.
Below we have listed the key licenses you’ll need when opening a food truck.
FSSAI License: A food truck and for that matter, any food business with gross revenue of
more than 12 lakh INR needs to have the FSSAI license. It is essentially a 14 digit number.
Here is a complete guide on how you can acquire your FSSAI license.
NOC from the Chief Fire Officer: As food trucks deal with a lot of gas appliances,
having a NOC certificate from the Chief Fire Officer is mandatory.
Permission letter from the local municipal body: When you will zero in on a location
for your business premises, you would need to get a written document, stamped by the
local municipal body to start setting up.
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Vehicle license: As you will be operating out of a commercial vehicle, a license for the
same must be issued by the RTO of commercial vehicles.
Here’s the complete guide to navigating licenses and taxes for your restaurant/food
brand in India
Benefits of opening a Food Truck
1. Low investment, low risk: A food truck would not cost you more than INR 10
lakhs if you spend carefully.
2. Fewer resources required: One big advantage of a food truck is that you have a
low dependency on resources. You can even get started with 1-2 resources (costing
you around 4-8K INR per person).
3. Learning experience: If you wish to learn fast about the various activities involved
in running a food business, this is a great starting point. You can gauge processes
of analysing data, get a better grip on customer tastes and preferences, do
important operational activities, manage marketing, promotions and so on.
4. Catering at events: Besides your everyday operations, you should consider
building a few partnerships and cater at events, corporate festivals and more. The
Curry Up Now food truck, for instance, sells excellent Indian street food and caters
to a large number of tests and corporate events.
Top things to keep in mind while starting a Food Truck
Location
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Your food truck will run well only if the location is good. Keep these factors in mind:
1. Vehicle Parking: A truck would need a considerable amount of open space. Also,
you need to ensure that you are allowed to park a vehicle in a specific area. You
could check up with the local municipal authorities about this.
2. Visibility: You should choose an area which is frequently visited by people. Good
areas might be outside popular parks, movie halls, and universities.
3. Competitor mapping: Check out where your competition is stationed. Plan your
location accordingly.
Your brand
A restaurant is as good as how it clicks with people. And above everything else, people
love a good story. Your brand must have a unique story that people can associate with.
How do you build a strong brand?
1. Finalise a target audience: Decide whether you want to cater to a young crowd or
families. That will help you with your content marketing and social media strategy.
2. Do competitor research: Find out how your competition is faring, the food they
sell. Their promotion channels, their unique selling proposition, Everything you can
dig up about your competition will be useful when you go about building your
brand.
3. Build differentiators: What makes you stand out and why should people buy
from you? To stand out from the crowd, you must have a clear answer to this
question.
4. Finalise a name: Choose a name that clicks with the target audience you
finalised. One that resonates with them and one that they can relate to. Here are a
few names for your inspiration: What the Truck, Eat and Run, Oh Buoy, What the
Fork. Check out this resource if you need help finalising a name for your restaurant.
5. Finalise a logo and a theme: A logo is an important piece of your branding It will
show up on all your designs, on your food truck, on your banners and promotions
and all your online platforms and promotions. Make sure it speaks to your brand.
Quick example: Southish Food Truck based out of Chennai, India has been positioned
as a strong South India food selling truck. Note the name, the images used on the truck,
the leaf as part of the company logo all scream out South Indian food.
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Health and Hygiene
Food trucks usually operate (cooking and selling) in very small areas. Business owners
must be very mindful of kitchen hygiene, air pollution levels, and food waste
management.
Environmental pollution has had a drastic impact on the food truck business. For
example, food trucks in Gurgaon have seen a dip in the business of about 40% owing to
high levels of smog.
News: Air pollution puts a break on Food trucks in Gurgaon
Here is a small checklist of health and hygiene pointers:
1. Make use of chimneys to control air pollution.
2. Conduct a check on the food waste twice a day and keep the cooking area clean.
3. Ensure that your staff maintains good sanitation.
4. Keep a few dustbins near the food truck.
Marketing a Food Truck
Needless to say, good marketing and promotions will decide the success of your
business. Keeping this in mind, we will point out some ways you could promote your
food truck, both online and offline.
Online Promotion Ideas
There are a large number of things you can do digitally. We have listed down a few of the
key points here:
Have your own website and app. Build a brand, tell your story loud and clear on
the website. Make use of attractive images and discounts.
Tie up with the large Indian online food ordering aggregators like Swiggy and
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Zomato. Here’s the complete guide to get you started.
Build a strong Social Media presence. Restaurants and food trucks make use of
Instagram and Facebook to build their brand. Ensure that you are visible and active
on social media channels.
Search Engine Optimization: Shortlist keywords around your niche and build all
your content around it. Be mindful of page load times, site meta-tagging, directory
listing so that you could be found on Google.
Run online ads: You could run advertisements on search engines and social to
either increase online orders or build your brand awareness. Both ways, you must
set aside some money and target audiences. You can also add custom audience
sets and run your ads on them.
Run CRM campaigns: Punch in customer details using POS and use customer data
to run your restaurant CRM campaigns via SMS and Email.
For a complete list of marketing ideas, check out this list.
Offline Promotion Ideas
Here is a list of things for you to try:
Distribute pamphlets, use printed advertisements
Tie up with local sellers and event planners
Have contests, reward a few lucky customers
Provide free WiFi at the truck
Get food reviewers and bloggers to your truck
Keep an eye out for all food events and fests.
Food Truck Festivals see size-able participation from many players around India and are
visited by foodies from all around. You could check out these festivals hosted in the cities
– Delhi and Mumbai.
Delhi Food Truck Festival returns for 3rd edition
Navi Mumbai is hosting the Food Truck fest 2019
In fact a lot of food truck owners say that focusing on events, catering, and regular
vending opportunities from the beginning will make all the difference as opposed to just
hitting the streets.
Now that you have all the information on how to get started with your own food truck.
We’ve listed down some Indian food trucks that you can take inspiration from. They have
been in business for long and have certainly mastered their craft.
Successful Food Trucks in India to take inspiration from
Lalit Food Truck
Located in Connaught Place Delhi, the Lalit Food Truck is one of the best food truck
success stories in India. It is owned by the Lalit Group and has been operational for
about 25 years. It has a diversified product line which includes a food truck, outdoor
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catering, events and parties. It boasts of an impressive client base including top
companies like ADB and Audi.
Go Fish Food
Situated in Bangalore, the truck is known for its lip-smacking seafood. Some of its hottest
items include prawn biryani, bangda fry. It is modestly priced at 300 for 2 and typically
opens after 7 PM on an average weekday.
Eat and Run
Stationed in Borivali West, Mumbai the truck is known for its beverages and fast food. It
is priced at a very reasonable level of 200 INR for 2 and facilities for outdoor seating.
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S.W.A.T Food Truck
Another one from Bangalore, S.W.A.T is short for Serving with a Twist. They serve
American fast food – their pasta, burritos, burgers are the most popular items. Their
average price for 2 is 450 and they welcome guest even as late as 3 AM!
Oh Buoy Noida
Oh Buoy is located in the outskirts of Noida, Delhi NCR and serves Mexican, Italian and
Chinese comfort food. Its popular menu items are pizzas, lasagna, chinese noodles/fried
rice, falafel, and hot dogs. Its average cost for 2 is around 550 INR. It offers outdoor
seating and home delivery.
Well, that’s all for now. Time to get the wheels of your desi truck rolling then? If you have
more questions, let us know in the comments.
Further readings on restaurant promotions, new technology and customer
experience.
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