6 Tips in Running a Canteen Business Philippines

Six things to remember in running a canteen business

Interview by Mishell M. Malabaguio, Photos by Jun Pinzon and Walter Villa

from Entrepreneur Philippines Magazine, April 2010

Take advantage of a captured market to run a profitable canteen business

Food businesses can take so many forms, such that operating one type is vastly different from running another.

For instance, running a food concession business is so unlike running a restaurant or a food cart. A food concession may take one of several setups: vending, food consignment in an already existing canteen, or running the canteen itself.

This package of articles will deal specifically with the third – operating a canteen.

A canteen is said to have a captured market, whether it is located in a school, office building or factory.  This does not make running the business any easier. It just presents a particular set of challenges depending on the market one chooses to serve.

1.    Imaginative menu

Since a canteen has a captured market, it needs a menu that offers  sufficient variety, says Marie Paz Pineda, a food concessionaire for about 22 years.

“You serve the same people everyday and they should not get tired of your offerings,” says Pineda. It is then important for a food concessionaire to regularly introduce new items to the menu.

2.    Little promotion

Canteens need very little promotion and advertisement. Entrepreneurs who are in this business, therefore, hardly spend for advertising

3.    Segments

There are three market segments usually served by food concessionaires: students, office employees and factory workers.

Among the three, students–specifically private-school students—are the most lucrative for Pineda, who runs  canteens in an exclusive school and dormitory in Manila.

Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com.ph/starterkit/article/six-things-to-remember-in-running-a-canteen-business

Source : http://www.entrepreneur.com.ph/starterkit/article/six-things-to-remember-in-running-a-canteen-business