What should I check before buying a mobile pizza trailer business?

A pizza trailer shares a lot with other mobile food businesses, but the oven and the dough set it apart. Start with the general checks in buying a coffee trailer business and reading a mobile caterer’s profits, then add the points below.

The oven and how it sits in the trailer

Find out what kind of oven it is, how old it is, how it is fuelled and how it is mounted. Ask for service records and a demonstration. A wood-fired or deck oven in a moving trailer needs sound fittings and a proper heat shield. Ask your insurer and your lawyer what they need to see before you take it over.

Where the dough is made

Few trailers have space for full dough preparation. Ask where the dough is made, stored and proofed, and whether the seller uses a shared commissary kitchen. If so, check that you can keep the space on the same terms, and who else depends on it.

Bookings, brand and the event calendar

Ask for the list of events and private parties already booked, and how those bookings were made. Find out whether the name, social accounts, phone number and booking page will transfer to you, and whether clients booked the owner personally or the trailer. Am I buying a used food truck or a food truck business explains the difference between buying the vehicle and buying the business.

Reading seasonal event sales

Sales may rise with festivals, markets and weddings and fall in colder months. Ask for records by event and by month, and note which events came from relationships with organizers. Ask your accountant to separate one-off events from steady income.