Beginner’s Guide on Starting a Fish and Chips Business in the United Kingdom

Starting a fish and chips business can be a risky proposition. You could open a place that provides delicious, high-quality food but face stiff competition from other restaurants within a week. Worse still, your low-cost competitors could fill up their shelves with inferior products, leading to unhappy customers and ultimately replacing them with more profitable outlets. Now, there are a few ways you can handle this situation. Chipping in a few quid each week towards the running costs of a newly-founded fish and chip shop will help the business grow – and stay profitable. This is useful if you want to keep control of your destiny or are apprehensive about investing too heavily in your new venture.

A fish and chips shop can be as simple as putting some fish and chips on the menu. But making a profit from it isn’t easy. You will need to consider your pricing strategy, running costs, and overall operational efficiency to make money. This article will help you get a good idea about starting a fish and chips business, including the guide to company registration in the UK.

 

What is a Fish and Chips Shop?

A fish and chip shop is a British type of takeaway that offers customers the opportunity to purchase fresh, cooked fish, chips, and other prepared foods. Consumers can choose from several fish and chip shops throughout the U.K. These shops generally provide takeaway service and several other services, such as supermarkets and petrol stations. Family businesses run the majority of such shops, with the main kitchen area being used to store fish and other prepared foods. As well as providing this service, some fish and chip shops also offer other types of catering services, such as pizza, to take into account different tastes and traditions within various communities within the U.K.

Although the initial idea of a fish and chip shop may seem mundane, the establishment has been consistently evolving. It is no longer just a conventional takeaway shop with the customers going in and ordering food. Today fish and chip shops offer everything from sandwiches to curry houses, all while catering to a local population primarily of fish-eaters. They understand that convenience is critical when serving patrons, where their choice may vary depending on where they concern their local fish pond or lake.

 

How to Start a Fish and Chips Business?

Step 1: Determine Which Type of Business

The first step to starting a fish and chips business is a plan. When launching your chip shop, you need to choose between two business models: a small takeout or a sit-down restaurant. Your choice will significantly impact how well your business runs and where it goes from there. Your business model determines how much you can charge, both now and in the future. It influences the products and services you offer, as well as the prices you can trust. Choosing the suitable business model for your fish chip business will give you plenty of profit while minimizing risk.

Takeout chip shops are very traditional, but they are also much quicker. Most takeout restaurants have an extensive menu but very little space. Therefore, they can’t serve customers quicker than they can display their goods. And since customers usually buy similar things, it is easier for the staff to help them quickly. In addition, takeout restaurant owners have less turnover since employees are busy serving customers instead of taking orders from customers or working tables. So, takeout shops with great takeout can have much larger profits than those that rely on little else but cheap food.

A sit-down restaurant does require more overhead, mainly because you need ample space. The difference is that your customers will order at the counter directly from the chef rather than having their food delivered to them. To know more about these business models, you may visit the corporate service provider platform and ask for assistance.

Step 2: Pick the Perfect Location

There are several factors you have to consider when deciding where to open a small business. The location affects the type of food establishment you can open, the quality of service you provide, and even how successful it will be. However, the most critical factor is whether or not customers will move there. Most people will only consider a business when they have already visited it and liked what they saw. If you want to start a business in a foreign location, it’s essential that you know which factors are crucial for attracting customers in that market. The most apparent factors are the cost of living and accessibility of transportation.

Step 3: Get the Equipment

Regardless of the business plan, all fish and chip shops need similar equipment. You’ll need:

• Commercial fryers
• Large fridges
• Display fridges for drinks and snacks
• Heated food display
• A large storage freezer
• A potato-peeling machine
• Microwave
• Chip scuttle
• Batter mixer
• A point-of-sale system

Step 4: Handle the Legal Necessities

There are many legalities in starting any kind of business, let alone a restaurant or food-delivery business. You’ll need to obtain the following:

• A business structure. For a restaurant, it’s possible to form an LLC. This helps protect your wealth, prevents your company from being taxed twice, and protects you from lawsuits.
• A state and federal tax identification number. This can be obtained through the IRS. It allows you to pay taxes on your business’s income properly.
• A business license. You can obtain this from your local government, but you need to have proper insurance.

Step 5: Handle the Food Permits and Licensing

Before starting your restaurant, it’s good to know the basics of food safety and business licensing. Moreover, it’s a good idea to handle the necessary paperwork for several vital steps—from starting up to employing kitchen staff. What might seem like an unbelievable amount of paperwork can be handled relatively quickly if you have the right resources at your disposal. The more you learn about the industry, the easier it will be to start and operate a successful food business. Getting these permits and licenses would be a lot easier with the help of company incorporation services in the UK.

• Music License
  Background music licensing is an area of the advertising law that concerns the use of music in establishments where customers are likely to buy products or services using music as part of their purchase decision. It is licensed to publishers and businesses who pay a license fee to use it in the U.K.
• Alcohol licensing
  Restaurant owners and managers in the United Kingdom must obtain an alcohol license to serve alcohol in their restaurants.
• Food safety
  The food safety act aims to provide consumers with easy-to-understand information on how to sort out products that contain potentially hazardous food. You’ll have to register your food business with the local authority as soon as you begin selling prepared food products for consumption on an ongoing basis. This will ensure that proper food safety procedures are carried out and that any potential risk to consumers isn’t passed on to them when they buy your prepared food from the shops around you.

Step 6: Find Quality Suppliers

If the supply chain is managed correctly, it’s easier to rely on a single supplier for your fish supplies. That means choosing suppliers with a track record of excellence and customer service beyond just replacing fish that have died or run out of digestive juices. When you buy fish from sustainable sources, you support a powerful economic force. The faster this process is completed, the more efficiently nature recycles biological waste materials while lowering public awareness of fish consumption.

Finding suitable suppliers is essential to keeping your fish-fry businesses healthy. Any company with more than three employees will need a supplier, and the fish tank industry is massive, involving thousands of suppliers. If you’re thinking of starting your own fish tank business, you need to be aware of the numerous risks involved and how much you can lose. Getting suitable suppliers will also help you ensure that your business has a good supply line of fish each year. Finding wholesalers means getting access to the fish from multiple sources; this is where data analytics comes in. By working with suppliers, you can see if they have poor quality or are mislabelling their product.

Step 7: Establish a Marketing Plan

Marketing is as essential as the fish-fry business itself. If you don’t create and promote your brand, then no one else will. Marketing is about getting people to know about your business and coming here for reasons other than just the wonderful experience you’ve created. Thus, a crucial part of creating a solid marketing plan is defining your goals and establishing a marketing campaign that will move you towards achieving those goals. Your goals could be anything from generating awareness and bringing in customers to selling your products and services.

Are you still not sure about starting a fish and chips business or not? If yes, you may contact 3E Accounting for assistance.