How to Price Catering: A UK Guide
Cornerstone caterer guide. The full method from menu cost to quoted price per head, covering staff, travel, hire and margin.
The short answer
To price catering, cost the food for the whole event, add every paid staff hour, travel, and hire, then divide by the confirmed guest count and apply your margin. Food is usually 25 to 35 percent of the final price per head, so pricing on food cost alone will underquote you by roughly a third.
Step by step
- Cost the menu at event quantity. Price each dish for the whole booking rather than per portion. You buy in event quantities, so cost in them too, and include the wastage you genuinely expect.
- Count every paid hour. Prep the day before, loading, travel time, setup, service, and clearing down. This is the line most often underestimated.
- Add travel, hire and disposables. Round trip mileage, van running costs, chafers, linen, crockery, and anything that comes back broken.
- Divide by the confirmed guest count. Use the number you are contracted to serve, not the optimistic early figure.
- Apply your margin, then sense-check. Add your margin to reach the quoted price, then check the food cost percentage lands near 25 to 35 percent.
Worked example: a 100 guest wedding buffet
A typical UK buffet with two staff on site for eight hours and a 90 mile round trip.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Food for 100 guests | £850.00 |
| Prep, 6 hours at £14 | £84.00 |
| On site, 2 staff x 8 hours at £14 | £224.00 |
| Travel, 90 miles plus driver time | £95.00 |
| Hire and disposables | £70.00 |
| Total event cost | £1,323.00 |
| Cost per head | £13.23 |
| Quoted at 55% margin | £29.40 per head |
| Food as a share of price | 28.9% |
Quoting £16 per head on the £8.50 food cost alone would have looked like a healthy margin and actually returned about 17 percent before tax, with the caterer working the event for less than the staff were paid.
Why it matters
Catering costs move between quoting and serving. Guest counts change, suppliers reprice, and a venue further away turns a profitable booking into a break-even one. Re-costing every affected quote by hand is the step that gets skipped, which is exactly where a fully booked season still fails to make money.