Street Food Pitch Fees and the Costs of Turning Up (UK)
The costs you pay before you sell anything, and how to spread them across a service without guessing.
The short answer
A pitch fee, gas, and the round trip are paid whether you sell out or sell nothing, so they belong in the price as a fixed cost of the day spread across the portions you expect to sell. Divide them by a realistic count, not your best day, and check what happens to the figure when the count halves.
Step by step
- List what the day costs before you open. Pitch or stall fee, gas, fuel for the round trip, any pitch electricity, and staff you bring with you.
- Pick a realistic count for that pitch. Different pitches have different footfall. Use what that specific pitch usually does, not an average across all of them.
- Divide the fixed costs by the count. This is the per-serving contribution those costs make, and it rises sharply as the count falls.
- Set a walk-away number. Work out the count below which the pitch loses money at your price. If a pitch regularly falls under it, the fee is too high for what it delivers.
What a £95 pitch costs per serving
The fee does not change; only the number of people you sell to does.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| At 120 portions | £0.79 per serving |
| At 90 portions | £1.06 per serving |
| At 60 portions | £1.58 per serving |
| At 40 portions | £2.38 per serving |
Between a good day and a poor one the pitch alone swings by more than £1.50 a portion. On a £12 plate that is most of the difference between a healthy margin and a thin one.
Why it matters
Fixed costs are invisible until the count drops, which is precisely when you can least afford to discover them. Knowing the per-serving contribution of a pitch before you book it turns a gut decision into an arithmetic one.