BAKERY FOOD TRUCKS
FEW MOBILE BAKERY TRUCKS ARE ALIKE
Mobile bakery concepts vary wildly. Choosing between dough, donuts, gourmet pastry, or proper whole loaves of bread makes quite the difference in the types of food truck you can or should use, the necessary equipment, and the price tag.
If you are a professional baker – and many of you likely are if you are reading this and our targeting is on point – before you get angry – yes, donut food trucks and cookie dough trucks are maybe not really quite bakery food trucks.
However, there is a reason Sub Way offers cookies and DD has a sandwich menu though – it sells! Many customers will if not outright expect you to have it, at least ask regularly.
Your business and concept are unique and it is not up to us to tell you how to run your bakery, design a menu, and what to stock. Our job is to build you the best possible mobile bakery for your business at a great price and to help you make it a success by sharing tips and tricks of the truck trade.
For this reason we provide a little starter dough on this page to help inspire you, as three modular concepts and business cases commonly proven successful for a bakery food truck.
mobile bakery options to consider
how to start a bakery food truck concept
It is possible to combine these or do something else entirely as there are no strict rules or membership cards for a pastry food truck club that will kick you out for serving salad. Tying up a project or business case to too many requirements will hamstring it though as a cute pastry oriented Piaggio is not suited to doing the rounds of delivery to the neighborhoods craving your loaves. Also a monstrous 20ft P30 Workhorse perfect for delivery does not have the “kawaii” factor weddings and event producers might be looking for.
Aside from the branding concerns, the all important “flow” of product in the limited space of a food truck means you must make some clear cut branding and conceptualizing decisions that reflect in your menu if you are looking for optimal performance and output over versatility.
Step vans are universally suited to all the roles and use cases of a bakery food truck. Their all-American standard look is simply what people expect to see if told there is a food truck around the corner. Our other big truck solution is a Mercedes that fits all equipment you can imagine, and the other options allow for subverting customer expectations with a pleasant surprise.
TYPES OF BAKERY FOOD TRUCKS
PASTRY AND PATISSERIE FOOD TRUCKS
One of the best breakfasts is a coffee and croissant (or other sweet guilty pastry treat). Styling your mobile bakery with a focus on pastry and patisserie will give you a shot at the breakfast crowd and as a baker, you are used to getting up early anyway.
While every other food trucker is still out fighting for that lunch rush you will have already had the bulk of your sales safely banked. Premium concession spots will still be vacant around the morning rush as nobody is selling their burgers and taco’s in that slot anyway.
Not to say nobody is getting croissants for lunch or hopping out later in the day to get a well deserved midday break with a tea/coffee and something sweetly delicious. Pastry food trucks allow a well-rounded concept for a full day except for dinner options and late night snacks.
For private catering events, conferences, and weddings you will also be pleasantly surprised by the number of invites, especially if you can act as part of the hospitality and the truck has the right appeal.
As such we offer two pre configured options – an original classic French Citroen Type H Van and a pastry tuk tuk. This way your workhorse doubles as your free marketing department.
BREAD FOCUSED MOBILE BAKERY
For established bakeries having made a name for themselves, the mobile bakery has two major purposes – serving and expanding your delivery area or a lower cost option extra retail outfit. Bread focused mobile bakeries can also be a good way to test the waters for new bakers before opening a retail bakery.
Given the volume of product and type of equipment needed, this type of solution is best provided using a step van or bigger European box truck such as a Mercedes Sprinter. Although the power requirements are higher and commercial ovens have their price tag, the marketing value of being able to advertise “we bake on board” is not to be underestimated, so our preconfigured units contain professional ovens.
For bakery trucks, doing the rounds on a Saturday for a tour of the better residential areas makes tons of sense, as does opening up the truck as a retail bakery on (farmers)markets whenever they are.
SANDWICH FOCUSED BAKERY
FOOD TRUCK
When you say lunch, you say sandwich- period. And sometimes sandwiches are breakfast, too. All in all, a sandwich-focused bakery operation is as successful as you are creative, with the focus being divided between your creative and quality topping combinations and the awesome bread sandwiching them that is still warm from the oven.
Real commercial potential for these configurations is in securing the name and recognition in a fixed spot that allows delivery around an office block with your truck listed on the major delivery apps and your own truck and scooter delivery operation. After a taste people will want your sandwiches but not the queue that comes with their popularity, so being able to send off 40 to an office lunch catering is major revenue boost.
Our sandwich configuration has more cooling under workbenches, a smaller bake-off convection oven, and an extended refrigerated salad bar.
EASY UPSELLS FOR YOUR MOBILE BAKERY
Although the meat of the matter is bread (ha!), it is often worth adding a few side items to your menu to boost your profits. Based on our experience you will probably not want to run a bakery truck without the following upsells unless it violates your brand and concept in unspeakable ways:
- Coffee
- Ice cream
- Cookies
- Donuts
The key here is to stay conservative and delineate your side offering tightly. You do not have to go all out with a handmade Italian espresso machine. A percolator that serves black coffee and only that will still sell you more than not having provided an optional coffee.
Get a softserve machine and not a full Italian gelato bar, and only one or two types of cookie and donut, because you are doing pastry and not donuts. No espresso’s and latte art – it will only distract you, take up too much space and make preparations take forever.
CAN I USE PRE-BAKED BREAD?
Commercially optimizing your mobile bakery, you could opt for buying your dough or even the whole bread frozen from Restaurant Depot or Metro and focusing more on your concept and branding. With a professional steam oven you can then explain your process to the greenest of hires in half a day and expect consistent quality output.
This kind of standardization is probably a necessity for ambitious franchise concepts, but we would not recommend it for anything other than a sandwich focused concept that really delivers on their creativity and combinations, and even then not with heart.
For owner-operator food truck concepts you are putting your brand and name out there too much to risk the detrimental effect of your loyal customers uncovering the bread is pre-baked, wholesale frozen, and easily available. It will hurt their perception of you, your brand, and impact sales and pricing negatively.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT BAKERY FOOD TRUCKS
Learn more in our knowledge center ►Yes, we ship to Hawaii. Extra rates apply.
Yes, we ship to Alaska, although extra rates apply.
Containers go everywhere, and all units can always be shipped to the nearest port. We might not have a local forwarder in your country (yet) though, in which case we will find one together with you.
Of course! Karpatia has no real showroom, but we are always happy to host you at the workshop. You can make an appointment through our contact form and try before you buy. We operate out of Atlanta Georgia, at the MET business park (675 Metropolitan pkwy SW).
Generally – no. Food trucks are not a profitable business for most people. What? Aren’t you trying to sell me a food truck? Yes, we are, but many are financed and let me tell you it’s not a pretty sight when a big 6yr financing comes unraveled in 14 months.
Running a food truck, and by extension a bakery food truck, is somewhat similar to a restaurant with lower start-up and overhead expenses. Some are highly profitable businesses capable of expanding to different cities or even states but most restaurants and food trucks fail, in their first years even.
The big redeemer is that this is generally all up to you. A successful food truck requires you to deliver a good product, hustle and put in the hours. Most failed food truck entrepreneurs burn out on the intensity of the hustle or had no business running a business or making anyone food in the first place – think Kitchen Nightmares on wheels.
If you know the business and your product is good, you will hustle your way to success just like you did all your life so far.
There are literally hundreds of food truck builders.
so why karpatia?
Karpatia provides one of the best quality-to-value ratios in the industry. From 100% made in the USA to high end European classics and authentic conversions, we can do it all.
With Karpatia, you have an endless amount of possibilities. We will provide you with the best kitchen equipment and customizations such as full body wrap or painting. Working with us is fast and easy!
We also provide additional services to help you get started – from financing to food truck websites.
WHAT TYPE OF MOBILE
BAKERY IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
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