price per pound

T

tomrip

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
richmond...
hello all. i am catering, and am tryign to find a rock solid way of quoting people prices and also make money. i have got the soezzy bbq catering planner. my questions is , what do you guys charge per pound on pork and chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, green beans and such. i am stuck in a rock and a hard place. i call other bbq restaurants, and they will quote liek 12.99 a pound for pulled pork, but most caterign places do 5.99 in my area. I went with 7.99 a pound, and a lot of people feel i am charging too much. I want to make a profit, but be reasonable as well. its so hard.
 
well, first off...

There will always be folks that complain about your costs, for some reason, people often feel they should get the meat for less than what they would even pay for it at a store. So, stop worrying about that.

The only proper way to calculate your sell price, is to calculate your complete costs for preparing the food, then adding in your desired profit. By complete costs, I mean to really take into account every single cost of ingredients and overhead. Has to be done for every dish, it is a pain, but, so it working at a loss.

Restaurant costs will be higher, due to higher overhead costs, catering typically lets you dial in costs a little tighter and thus, costs can be controlled a little better. Out here in California, you couldn't do pulled pork for $8 a pound and hope to make money.
 
Landarc is right. There will ALWAYS be complainers. We just experienced it a month ago when we did a youth fundraiser where we serve pulled pork plates with 5 oz of meat on a pulled pork sammy, bbq beans, potato chips and a homemade dessert for $10.

There are a lot of people that want something for nothing.
 
HBMTN said:
I guess every market has pricing based on what it will bare. If mine gets to where I can only charge $5.99lb I'll be putting everything up for sale and cooking for myself.
Click to expand...

I agree HBMTN. If it comes to that it is no longer a business.....it is a charity and I may as well get the tax deductions for my donations to the community since I sure as heck won't be making any profit. :biggrin1:
 
DO you guys think 9.99 is good for pork? Also what do you guys charge for paper plates and plastic ware and napkins?
 
tomrip said:
DO you guys think 9.99 is good for pork? Also what do you guys charge for paper plates and plastic ware and napkins?
Click to expand...

We don't offer just the meat for catering or drop off. We offer meals with 2 sides or more if they wish to have more. The profit is in the sides, as an expample if you provide pulled pork for 100 people say as a drop off and you charge $9.99lb you'll cook roughly 32lbs and I'll do pulled pork with buns and sauce including 2 side options for $8.50 per person. You and I will pretty much cook the same amount of time and your gross sale is $320 while mine is $850.
 
Paper plates, plastic ware, napkins, etc are consumable costs and are added in with all of your other costs. Then, if you are using the "cost times 3" method you multiply this TOTAL cost of the event time 3 to arrive at the customers price. We started out with the "cost x 3" method but now we add the cost of each and every item used and use a margin percent markup to arrive at the retail amount. I built a MONSTER spreadsheet that allows us to calculate our costs for any event down to a gnats a.........well you get the point. :mrgreen:
 
$10 a pound out here would be a losing proposition.
 
here is a quote i am working on. 217 people. does this sound good? I have been running a restaurant for 7 months now, i am so new to the business side of things. so i am sorry i am asking these silly questions, i am just so lost.
Quote for 217 people.
Pulled pork 54.25 pounds $637.94 2.94 per person
Mac n cheese $147.13 .68 per person
Baked Beans $136.93 .63 per person
Cole Slaw 160.50 .74 per person
Buns 120.00 .55 per person
Barbeque Sauce 77.04 .36 per person
1279.54 5.89 per person
25.00 delivery fee.
 
Just for reference, I purchased a small smoked flat from HEB (Texas Local) for $11.00+ a pound.
 
tomrip said:
here is a quote i am working on. 217 people. does this sound good? I have been running a restaurant for 7 months now, i am so new to the business side of things. so i am sorry i am asking these silly questions, i am just so lost.
Quote for 217 people.
Pulled pork 54.25 pounds $637.94 2.94 per person
Mac n cheese $147.13 .68 per person
Baked Beans $136.93 .63 per person
Cole Slaw 160.50 .74 per person
Buns 120.00 .55 per person
Barbeque Sauce 77.04 .36 per person
1279.54 5.89 per person
25.00 delivery fee.
Click to expand...


Without knowing your COGS (cost of goods sold) and serving sizes per item it is hard to give an answer. If I were to use out COGS on this menu list our price(s) per person would be higher.
 
tomrip said:
here is a quote i am working on. 217 people. does this sound good? I have been running a restaurant for 7 months now, i am so new to the business side of things. so i am sorry i am asking these silly questions, i am just so lost.
Quote for 217 people.
Pulled pork 54.25 pounds $637.94 2.94 per person
Mac n cheese $147.13 .68 per person
Baked Beans $136.93 .63 per person
Cole Slaw 160.50 .74 per person
Buns 120.00 .55 per person
Barbeque Sauce 77.04 .36 per person
1279.54 5.89 per person
25.00 delivery fee.
Click to expand...

Here's a little reference for you.
I did 2 parties 2 weeks ago.
Party #1 - 100 people
Pork - 25lbs
Chicken Q's - 60 pieces
3 sides - 3 1/2 pans each side (Slaw, M&C, Broccoli salad)
paper products, buns, sauces
$9.50/person - $950

Party#2 - 125 people
Pork - 30lbs
Chicken Q's - 40 pieces
3 sides - 3 1/2 pans each side (Slaw, beans, potato salad)
buns and sauces
$8.50/person - $935

made a good profit after all expenses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
What is a first cut brisket?
Replies
7
Views
1K
smoke ninja
smoke ninja
F
Price quote
Replies
1
Views
804
SmoothBoarBBQ
SmoothBoarBBQ
L
Menu Advice
Replies
1
Views
283
SmokeOCD
S
16Adams
Why Brisket Too Dam High, and a Thank You
2 3
Replies
50
Views
2K
gcs
G
F
Catering for 350
Replies
6
Views
2K
Tobacco Road Pitmasters
T
Back
Top